The Health Secretariat of the State of Ceará (Sesa), northeastern Brazil, announced that they will use a central Digital Health system to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination process in the region.
The 184 municipalities of Ceará will use the Digital Health single registration platform to register their inhabitants in the immunization process against COVID-19. This action was already published in the Official State Gazette at the end of May, so the standardization of data in the vaccination process is already underway.
In this way they seek to know more precisely the population that will receive the vaccine and manage vaccine transfers to achieve a more efficient distribution in the most populated areas or in the most remote areas.
"There are cases in which the municipality uses the registry of people in Digital Health, but the scheduling is done in their own program and we (State Health Secretariat) do not have access. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that the municipality hires all the people registered. That's why we put the ordinance in place, so that everyone can use Digital Health. So that we can make sure that everyone who registers can make an appointment," explained Magda Almeida, executive secretary of Surveillance and Regulation at Sesa.
The platform is used for population registration, to schedule vaccination appointments and to register that the person has been vaccinated. Sesa provided a two-week transition period for all municipalities to adapt to the changes. Those two weeks of adaptation culminated the first week of June, so at the moment all municipalities should have the data standardization.
"We have warned, from the beginning, that municipalities give access to those who are digitally excluded or have difficulties to access the digital system. That they guarantee access through basic health units, social assistance reference centers, as is done with several other systems, including Bolsa Família" explained Almeida. He also recognized the importance of community agents for the implementation of this strategy, who have been in charge of registering the population from the vaccination points.
