This kit has been developed to support the delivery of mass vaccination programmes during the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It is intended for the use of healthcare personnel who have received training in the safe administration of specific vaccine products.

As the guidance on safe and appropriate vaccine administration varies by vaccine type, there are three different COVID-19 vaccination consumable kits available on this platform. 

This present kit contains the disposable medical supplies required to administer 1170 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty) COVID-19 vaccine.

For details on alternative COVID-19 consumables kits please see: COVID19 Vaccination Consumables Kit, Pre-filled Syringe Programmes and COVID19 Vaccination Consumables, Mass Vaccination Kit.

WHO (2021a) recommends the use of auto-disable (AD) syringes over regular syringes for COVID-19 vaccination administration. If however there are specific reasons within the local context to use regular syringes within vaccination programming, an alternative version of this present kit is available: COVID19 Vaccination Consumables Kit, Pfizer/BioNTech Programmes.

Context of use 

This kit has been adapted from the IDA Foundation's COVID-19 Vaccination Consumables Kit catalogue (IDA, Foundation 2021). It is designed to facilitate efficiency in the procurement of vaccine consumables for the use of trained personnel working within mass vaccination programmes (IDA Foundation, 2021). 

The nature and location of vaccination administration sites will vary according to the specific local context but may include health centres and clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, government buildings, mobile vaccination units and community centres.

The present kit has been made available on this platform for use in acute humanitarian settings, primarily within low and middle-income countries. Vaccination consumable kits may however also be helpful to the delivery of mass vaccination programmes in higher-income countries during certain circumstances (e.g. natural disasters). 

Importantly, the disproportionate impact that the COVID-19 outbreak has had on lower resource settings and communities has been widely documented (WHO, 2021b). The need for vaccine programmes to be underpinned by a commitment to vaccine equity has therefore been emphasized (WHO-UNICEF, 2021; WHO, 2021b). WHO-UNICEF (2021) advise that such vaccine equity strategies are vital to ensuring that the needs of those most affected (both directly and indirectly) by the ongoing pandemic are adequately addressed. 

Groups that are likely to require specialised and/or targeted vaccination services include refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), migrants, stateless persons and individuals living in areas under the control of non-state armed groups (WHO-UNICEF, 2021). 

Specific information on how both COVID-19 outbreaks and vaccination delivery should be managed within humanitarian settings has been developed by multiple agencies (see WHO, 2019; Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), 2020; UNICEF, 2020; WHO, 2021c). 

All available COVID-19 response guidelines should however be regarded as ‘living guidance’ and subject to ongoing review and update. It is therefore recommended that prior to the procurement and use of any vaccine consumables kit, the latest WHO, national and vaccine-specific guidance is reviewed. 

Scaling

This kit contains the minimum recommended quantity and specification of vaccination consumables required to administer 1170 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty) COVID-19 vaccine. 

As a degree of accidental wastage during use of any health kit is likely, the quantity of each component included in this kit can be increased accordingly to account for any anticipated wastage locally. This kit can also be modified to reflect specific local health and resource needs.

A rapid assessment of local resource circumstances is advised to confirm the need for and suitability of vaccination programme delivery kits prior to kit procurement. This will include a review of existing healthcare resources and health facility capacity, as well as an assessment of the expected health needs specific to the target population. If possible, this assessment should utilize available pre-crisis demographic and services data. 

Sources

Delivery of immunization services for refugees and migrants: technical guidance. (WHO, 2019)

Interim Guidance SCALING-UP COVID-19 OUTBREAK READINESS AND RESPONSE OPERATIONS IN HUMANITARIAN SITUATIONS Including Camps and Camp-Like Settings (Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), 2020)

Immunization Supply Chain Interventions to Enable Coverage and Equity in Urban Poor, Remote Rural and Conflict Settings (UNICEF, 2020)

Injection safety in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination (WHO, 2021a)

COVID-19 and the social determinants of health and health equity: evidence brief (WHO, 2021b)

Guidance on operational microplanning for COVID-19 vaccination (WHO, 2021c)

Guidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19 vaccines (WHO-UNICEF, 2021)

COVID-19 Vaccination Consumables Kit (IDA Foundation, 2021).

Solution creators

This solution was developed by Stevie-Jade Beeby with contributions from Anuradha Dissanayake.