Recent guidance and training materials related to COVID-19:
LNCT Webinar: Training Health Workers Virtually During COVID-19 – Lessons from Angola and India
LNCT organized a webinar to train health workers during COVID-19. Participants heard about several recent virtual training experiences targeting health care workers, ranging from in-depth technical training in Angola, to cascaded training delivered through a combination of virtual and in-person platforms in India, to simple refresher training using a mobile platform in India. Speakers presented the challenges, considerations, lessons learnedAn insight on how to adjust what is being done based on experience or learning (describing what was learned and by whom, and primary outcomes of the virtual training. Participants also had the opportunity to participate in a moderated question & answer discussion with the panelists at the end of the webinar.
View the recording here.
Training material: COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction and deployment Costing tool (CVIC)
Countries are planning the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines for 2021 and need an estimate of the incremental costs for resource mobilization purposes, including the World Bank’s COVID-19 Fast-Track Loan Facility. Countries can also use the tool to prepare budgets for vaccination beyond 2021 as COVID-19 vaccine is deployed. The tool aligns with the COVID-19 vaccine introduction readiness assessment tool and the Guidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan, and WHO SAGE values framework for the allocation and prioritization of COVID-19 vaccination. The tool is to be available for any country to use, though it may mostly be of interest to the 92 AMC countries. The tool is designed to support a rapid, yet comprehensive, estimation of the incremental costs. For that purpose, the tool is pre-populated as much as possible – using available data from global databases. The tool is by default set up to support a rapid cost estimate in a modular manner. The tool’s output includes estimates, which can be directly inserted into COVID-19 vaccine introduction readiness assessment tool.
View the tool here and the full list of WHO COVID-19 guidelines here.
WHO: Training material: Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for COVID-19 Virus
This course provides information on what facilities should be doing to be prepared to respond to a case of an emerging respiratory virus such as the novel coronavirus, how to identify a case once it occurs, and how to properly implement IPC measures to ensure there is no further transmission to HCW or to other patients and others in the healthcare facility. This training is intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, as it is focused on infection prevention and control.
View the course here.
COVID-19 vaccines: misinformation management guide: Guidance for addressing a global infodemic and fostering demand for immunization
Misinformation threatens the success of vaccination programs across the world. Unicef, First Draft, Yale Institute for Global Health, and PGP (The Public Good Projects) have partnered to create the Vaccine Misinformation Management Field Guide. This guide aims to help organizations to address the global infodemic through the development of strategic and well-coordinated national action plans to rapidly counter vaccine misinformation and build demand for vaccination that are informed by social listening.
View the full guide here.
UNICEF | WHO: Conducting community engagementThe process by which community benefit organizations and individuals build a long term relationship with collective vision for the benefit of the for COVID-19 vaccines
The purpose of this guidance is to put community engagement at the centre of introduction strategies for COVID-19 vaccines. This document contains tips and discussion topics to be considered in vaccine delivery and demand creation, as well as guiding steps to ensure a safe and community-centred approach when conducting community engagement activities.
This document is developed as a guidance tool for health programme managers, health and community workers, community volunteers and social mobilizers, as well as civil society organizations and other stakeholders who are responsible for conducting community engagement activities related to
COVID-19 vaccines.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected millions of people across the world and has resulted in many lives being lost. To protect people from COVID-19, vaccines are being developed. Vaccination is a critical intervention to protect populations from COVID-19, especially in combination with key behavioural actions.
View the document here.
UNICEF | WHO: Data for action: Achieving high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines
Gathering and using data on behavioral and social drivers of vaccination: A guidebook for immunization programmes and implementing partners
This guidebook and the associated surveys and qualitative interview guides were developed by a multi-disciplinary group of global experts and partners as a branch of an existing expert group developing similar tools to measure behavioural and social drivers (BeSD) of childhood vaccination. These tools for COVID-19 vaccination are grounded in the overall BeSD group expertise and existing research on vaccine uptake. The objective of BeSD is to boost the availability, quality and use of local and global data on vaccine acceptance and uptake.
Please note that these tools for COVID-19 have not yet been formally validated. However, cognitive interviews and psychometric validation is planned in the near future. WHO will provide ongoing updates to this guidebook and the tools in 2021.
View the document here.
UNICEF | WHO: Acceptance and demand for COVID-19 vaccines–Planning template in Excel
This communication plan template is intended to offer an outline of the communications activities that should be considered when countries are preparing to introduce COVID-19 vaccines. The table below should be completed along with a narrative communications plan to provide guidance, which will include the strategic objectives, target audiences etc. Countries can adapt it to the local context and add activities as needed to suit the country context.
View the template here.
UNICEF | WHO: Acceptance and demand for COVID-19 vaccines–Guidance for Overall Planning
Interim guidance from UNICEF and WHO
In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The outbreak, the first cases of which were detected in China, has infected millions of people across the world and caused significant loss of life. To protect people from the disease, vaccines against COVID-19 are being developed by several manufacturers in a number of countries. Vaccines, combined with behaviours such as physical distancing, hand hygiene, correct mask wearing, respiratory etiquette, improved ventilation will be the most effective means to protect populations from coronavirus. It is expected that only a limited supply of vaccines will be available in the early days. It will be important for countries to have a good communication plan in place to provide accurate and up-to-date information to families and communities about the COVID-19 vaccines, eligible segments of the population and continuation of recommended behaviours by all community members to prevent infection and transmission. Demand generation interventions will need to encourage eligible populations to be vaccinated and at the same time manage public expectations and convey that vaccine supplies will not be sufficient for everyone in the beginning.
This demand planning guidance document has been developed through a participatory, multi-stakeholder and iterative process by the demand sub-working group of the Country Readiness and Delivery (CRD) workstream of COVAX, the vaccine pillar of ACT-A. The development process was based on a range of scientific evidence, grey literature, existing guidance and plans for new vaccine introductions and mass vaccination campaigns, and a depth of expertise from many organizations with extensive experience in this domain from all regions the world. Experts and implementers from all regional offices and a diverse range of countries were engaged in the process to ensure practical and realistic approaches were taken. A particular focus was placed on social listening and behavioural and social data collection and use, to guide the design and evaluationThe systematic and objective assessment of the relevance, adequacy, progress, efficiency, effectiveness and impact of a course of actions, in relation to of targeted strategies to generate and sustain demand.
This document is intended to serve as practical, how to guidance to support programmes to achieve high acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. It accompanies an Excel sheet planning template that should be considered together with this document. Please adapt both to your context.
View the planning tool here.