Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO), together with partners, facilitated the development of a national deployment and vaccination plan (NDVP), which not only set standards to ensure preparedness for vaccination for all Member States in the region, but also helped to identify priority groups and plan accordingly for vaccination.
Coordinating with governments and partners: The Regional Working Group (RWG) on immunization was formed under the technical leadership of the Regional office. It included partners and donors, and was instrumental in identifying gaps and supporting countries in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination. The RWG also provided support for independent reviews of the NDVPs and ensured that they are robust.
Supporting Member States: WHO worked with all affected Member States, assessing the situation in the countries and building global response protocols. It facilitated the preparation of country-specific Covid-19 preparedness and response plans (CPRP) based on initial assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities, gaps in capacity at the national and subnational levels, and the resources required to address these gaps. It helped countries to develop their NDVPs based on their initial assessment of the situation at the local level and following simulation exercises.
Periodic reviews
These plans were periodically reviewed as the pandemic evolved and challenges arose. In a number of countries, WHO ensured a surge of human resources to support vaccination activities, from microplanning to vaccine delivery to monitoring implementation. It also picked up early signals of rumours of vaccine hesitancy and addressed them in a timely manner. Demand generation/demand management and risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) for Covid-19 vaccines were conducted with support from WHO, UNICEF and partners.
Guiding the Covax facility: The RWG convened discussions with national technical advisory groups to improve allotment of vaccines as per each country’s requirements so that the vaccines reached the last target priority groups as per the prioritization matrix of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization.
Setting up SOPS for EUA: WHO helped to establish standard operating procedures (SOPs) to grant emergency use authorisation (EUA) for vaccines in Member States that lacked policies on public health emergency situations, to prevent delays in deployment. These helped in overcoming legal and vaccine export restrictions. WHO worked with national regulatory authorities (NRAs) to enable swift sharing of information for timely EUA, ensure rapid deployment of vaccines and break down barriers between countries, manufacturers/donors and recipients.
Collaboration, tech transfer
WHO worked with the national immunisation technical advisory groups (NITAGs) of every Member State to ensure swift and effective implementation of Covid-19 vaccination with the best available scientific evidence related to Covid-19 vaccines and their implementation. The capacity of NITAGs was built over time prior to the pandemic. This was instrumental in supporting Covid-19 vaccination with translation of SAGE recommendations to country-specific contexts.
Facilitating technology transfer: A significant role played by WHO and other partners was in the area of vaccine technology transfer. Whereas traditionally new vaccine development could take anywhere between one to two decades, during the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a need to roll out the vaccine in just about a year. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) platforms were used to reduce the time taken for development, without compromising on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
WHO and partners developed a blueprint for technology transfer and negotiated with manufacturers and technology owners as well as with countries where these manufacturers were based, to facilitate technology transfer for scaling up vaccine manufacture globally.
Support to facilitate handling: The pandemic was an opportunity to augment supply chain management in countries. Gaps in supply chain and cold-chain management were identified and countries were supported to close the gaps. With the help of effective supply chain management, training and capacity-building of frontline staff, case management, and monitoring and reviewing of the evolving situation, WHO and partners were able to support Member States to efficiently vaccines.
