Kolkata, Jun 26 (IANS): Days after a fake vaccination racket was busted in Kolkata, the West Bengal health department on Saturday issued a detailed guideline to control and monitor Covid vaccination camps (CVCs) organised by private entities across the state.
The fake vaccination racket came to light after actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Chakraborty lodged a complaint suspecting that a camp in Kasba where she took the vaccine shot was fake. She found the camp suspicious when she received no official confirmation after taking the vaccine on Wednesday.
Debanjan Deb, the man who conducted the dubious vaccine camps impersonating as a Joint Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, has been arrested.
The seven-page guidelines issued by the health department specifically mentioned that all camps other than the ones directly organised by the state government will need to take prior permission of the state health department and fix a nodal officer so that the health department can directly communicate with him/her regarding the vaccination camp.
The guidelines also asked all private CVCs to maintain a dynamic inventory of vaccines, disclosing the source of their supplies, cold chain mechanisms, day-to-day consumption of vaccine doses etc., besides submitting end of the day reports to the health department.
The nodal officer must submit a weekly report on safety and tolerability of the vaccine doses.
The private vaccination camps must extend support and cooperation to the health department with respect to facilitating a prescheduled monitoring visit of the CVC by the representatives of the health department.
In case of poor compliance or gross departure from the prescribed norms, the health department shall revoke the permission to run the CVC, the guidelines said.
A private CVC must submit a list of all the people who completed vaccination, i.e., received both the doses, every Sunday.
In case of non-compliance by the beneficiaries, the same must be clearly mentioned in the weekly report, the guidelines said.
The organisers will not only have to obtain clearance from the local police, but they will also have to display the approval letter from the competent authority at the session site so that people can have a look at it.
The private CVCs will also have to display the charges taken for Covid vaccination. They will state how the vaccines will be transported from their cold chain point to the vaccination site maintaining the cold chain.
All vaccination shall be done through the CoWIN portal only. For ensuring better management at the vaccination sites, Covid vaccine related app should be used, the guidelines specified.
The private camps will display a board at the vaccination site clearly mentioning the CoWIN authenticated code number. At the end of the vaccination session, the organisation will submit a performance report to the local health authority.
On receiving the application for a vaccination camp, a responsible official will be assigned to visit the site and submit a report on the preparedness for the camp.
The authorised officer will then issue a certificate to the concerned organisation to conduct the camp subject to the satisfactory report of site preparedness by the inspecting official, the guidelines said.