Orientation to national deployment and vaccination planning for COVID-19 vaccines

Course information

This course is also available in the following languages:

македонски - Tiếng Việt - 中文 - Português - Русский - Français - Español- العربية

Overview: This course is intended to support national and sub-national focal points in preparing for COVID-19 vaccination. It provides an overview of key aspects of the guidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19 vaccines and highlights available and upcoming resources for COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

The course will cover the following areas: regulatory preparedness, planning and coordination, costing and funding, identification of target populations, vaccination delivery strategies, preparation of supply chain, management of health care waste, human resource management and training, vaccine acceptance and uptake (demand), vaccine safety monitoring, management of adverse events following immunization (AEFI), injection safety, and immunization monitoring systems. The course will be updated as additional information becomes available.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• describe the key considerations for developing and using a national deployment and vaccination plan;
• describe strategies for the deployment, implementation and monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines in-country;
• list existing and upcoming resources to support COVID-19 vaccine introduction; and
• identify key activities to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

Course duration: Approximately 4 hours.

Certificates: Participants who score 80% or higher on the course quizzes will receive a Record of Achievement certificate. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.

Orientation to national deployment and vaccination planning for COVID-19 vaccines is being translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Khmer, Vietnamese, Macedonian. This page will be updated when new languages are available. You will also be notified by email.

Course contents

• Module 1: Introduction to National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) guidance document for COVID-19 vaccines:

  This module introduces the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) guidance document for COVID-19 vaccines.

• Module 2: Regulatory preparedness:

  This module explains key components of regulatory preparedness for timely decision-making by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) during public health emergencies.

• Module 3: Planning and coordination:

  This module explains how countries can use coordination mechanisms to manage deployment and vaccination operations for COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

• Module 4: Costing and funding: Ensuring funds reach the point of delivery:

  This module discusses how to prepare a realistic budget to enable COVID-19 vaccine deployment and vaccination in consideration of existing essential health services.

• Module 5: Identification of target populations:

  This module describes the role of NITAG for COVID-19 review, how target populations are defined, and a process for ensuring equity in vaccine access.

• Module 6: Vaccination delivery strategies:

  This module describes strategies that can be used to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to different target populations.

• Module 7: Preparation of supply chain and management of health-care waste:

  This module describes critical supply chain activities to prepare for vaccine deployment and how to manage health care waste, and discusses how to access available tools and resources on supply chain and management of health care waste.

• Module 8: Human resource management and training:

  This module describes the steps involved in addressing human resource requirements for rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine, including training and supervision.

• Module 9: Vaccine acceptance and uptake (demand):

  This module describes a data-driven approach to planning, implementing and evaluating demand strategies, describes strategic communication activities that promote COVID-19 vaccination and how to manage expectations, and explains how building trust and managing misinformation is key to achieving acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.

• Module 10: Vaccine safety monitoring, management of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and injection safety:

  This module explains the unique and different contexts in which pharmacovigilance will have to be implemented for COVID-19 vaccination, as well as the key aspects of injection safety.

• Module 11: Immunization monitoring systems:

  This module describes vaccination data needs, and explains how to monitor the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination.