FG Develops Training Manual For COVID-19 Vaccine Handling

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency says it has developed training manual for COVID-19 handling and management as it plans to vaccinate 109m Nigerians in two years.

The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, says the plan is to train healthcare workers, supervisors and monitors at all levels in the next one to two weeks.

Shuaib disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.

The World Health Organisation says all health workers involved in implementation of COVID-19 vaccination need to have adequate knowledge and skills in order to ensure safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccine administration.

The WHO says, “The COVID-19 vaccination training for health workers package is developed for frontline health workers in countries.

“The package, developed in collaboration with UNICEF, consists of six modules, which include video lectures, quizzes, job aids, interactive exercises and downloadable presentations with the available information.”

Shuaib said, “With the over 60,000 health workers providing routine immunisation services nationwide, we recognise that the COVID-19 vaccine introduction certainly requires capacity building for this health workforce, but in addition to this, we will be engaging additional personnel to achieve the coverage level we desire and also ensure best practice in vaccine handling and management.”

He noted that, consequently, the Federal Government, through NPHCDA, had developed a training manual for the COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

Shuaib said that the manual outlined a comprehensive scheme and measures to identify and develop micro plans for the target population; the development of an effective, efficient and equitable vaccination delivery strategy, while ensuring vaccine security, management and accountability.

“The plan is to train healthcare workers, supervisors and monitors at all levels in the next one to two weeks,” he added.

The NPHCDA boss added that to facilitate the implementation process, the Technical Working Group had come up with a strategy of pre-registration and scheduling of the target population to prevent overcrowding at vaccination posts.

“We have come up with a strategy called the TEACH approach, which will harness all the benefits of traditional, electronic, assisted and concomitant house-to-house registration to optimise the use of innovative technology.

“The TEACH approach entailed:
• T: Traditional method of vaccinating target populations using desk review of available data sources, identifying the vaccination sites and rolling out
• E: Electronic self-registration for health workers and the public; a link which provides an online form will be provided
• A: Assisted electronic registration
• C: Concomitant e-registration during a walk in to fixed sites/health facilities
• H: House-to-House registration using volunteers for an additional push to rapidly increase the e-registration

“A URL link will be deployed for the electronic registration tool, which will be rolled out this week for healthcare workers, to register and appropriately schedule them for the COVID-19 vaccination,” he stated.

Shuaib also said that as part of the agency’s risk communication and demand generation strategy, it had organised a two-day training for over 1,500 LGA health educators and Community Orientation Mobilisation Officers of the National Orientation Agency.

This was to enable them to conduct community polling, track rumours and provide accurate information on COVID-19 vaccine to community members, he added.

“We also continued our sensitisation meetings with a wide range of stakeholders, which include the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, the Soroptimist International, and the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists.

“They have all shown remarkable willingness to advocate for the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to be confident that the Federal Government, through the PTF on COVID-19, was doing everything possible to mitigate the resultant complications of  COVID-19 on the health systems and economy.

“It is, therefore, important that we all collectively play our part and adhere to all the measures that are being rolled out to defeat this virus.

“On our part, we will continue to provide you with factual information about COVID-19 vaccine and the vaccination process as things evolve.

“As soon as we get information about vaccine availability timelines, you will also get the same information,” he stated.

(NAN)