Monitoring and EvaluSurvey: Online based registration an effective Covid-19 vaccination strategy

As many as 71 per cent of people think that online based pre-registration is an effective vaccination strategy for vaccination drive, according to a recent online survey.

The survey also found that 57 per cent of the participants think that the data driven system in their country adequately supports the vaccination drive.

The findings were unveiled during a virtual session on data-driven vaccination strategy in a Covid-19 free world, organized by Center for Policy Dialogue on Tuesday.

CPD organized the program in association with Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme, ICT Division and Cabinet Division, Bangladesh; Centre for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Argentina; Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, Southern Voice, Patrick J McGovern Foundation, USA and The City, USA.

The study was carried out online over a span of three days among participants from developing and developed countries that are part of the United Nation World Data Forum.

The government is generating data on post Covid-19 vaccination surveillance and pharmacological surveillance, said Directorate General of Health Services Additional Director General (planning and development) Meerjady Sabrina Flora.

“These two types of data are important for a country like Bangladesh as we are using different types of Covid-19 vaccines to ensure vaccine coverage for this huge population,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished CPD fellow, while moderating the session, said that once the management part is taken care of, the data played a crucial role in identification, inoculation and post vaccination surveillance.  

Policy Adviser of a2i, Anir Chowdhury said that the government is using data from different ministries including the local government for data collection for the vaccination drive. 

“We felt that the marginalized people may not have access to the internet to register online for the vaccination drive,” he said.

He added that around 14,000 community clinics, 4500 digital information centers, NGOs and national helpline helped the group to register for vaccination.

Dr Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, said the first thing Rwanda did was collecting nationwide information about who should be vaccinated first.

She said that since some vaccines are temperature sensitive, Rwanda carried the vials via helicopters to the inoculation centers in districts which are far away from the airports.

Vaccination Program Director of CIPPEC Natalia Aquilino Incidence said that data play a crucial part in vaccine management but needs to be transparent. 

Terry Parris Jr, engagement director of The City, New York, said that there were a number of issues regarding equity and digital access in the beginning of the vaccination program in New York. 

“There was openness in the dashboards and data sharing platforms but there were a lot of issues in terms of accessing those,” he said.

“For example, a site that was delivering data on vaccination in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood did not have any Spanish speakers,” he added.