From Bhadra Gogoi
Dimapur: The Nagaland government has constituted a state steering committee, State Task Force (STF) and District Task Force (DTF) in order to establish a coordination mechanism at state and district level for administration of COVID-19 vaccine.
The state steering committee, headed by the chief secretary, has been directed to meet at least once in a month and said additional meeting may be held if required.
In the preparatory phase, the committee will ensure active engagement of other line departments for various activities related to COVID-19 vaccine introduction as and when the vaccine is made available.
The government asked the committee to create database of health care workers on COVID-19 vaccination beneficiary management system who will be prioritised for vaccination in the first phase.
The committee will review of state’s preparatory activities in terms of cold chain preparedness, operational planning, communication planning, strategies for anticipated state specific challenges in terms of geographical terrain, network connectivity and hard to reach areas among other activities.
The STF has been asked to meet at least once every fortnight while additional meeting may be held as per need.
It will regularly monitor the progress of database of beneficiaries on COVID-19 vaccination beneficiary management system and provide guidance, including funding and operational guidelines, and fix timelines for districts to plan and implement COVID-19 vaccine introduction as and when vaccine is made available.
The STF will involve other relevant departments and key immunisation partners such as UN UNICEF, who, Rotary International, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Adolescent Health, lead partners and other organisations at state level, civil society organisations, including professional bodies such as Indian Medical Association, among other activities.
The DTF has been directed to monitor progress of database of beneficiaries on COVID-19 vaccination beneficiary management system.
It will also ensure training of ail concerned human resources on COVID-19 vaccination beneficiary management system and monitor progress on key activities such as micro planning, communication planning, cold chain and vaccine logistics planning.
It has been asked to fix accountability for each activity at all levels among other activities.
