Covid-19 vaccination dry run in 4 states from today
NEW DELHI: With a January target to roll out the Covid-19 vaccination drive in India, the Centre is starting dry run in four states — Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat — from December 28. The exercise will continue for two days, December 28 and 29, in two districts each. There will be no vaccine involved in the process, which will only check the feasibility of the plan which involves realtime monitoring through Co-WIN app.
Though India has not given a nod to any vaccine for emergency use, Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, tested and manufactured in India by Serum Institute, is the front-runner. Once the UK drug regulator gives its approval to the vaccine, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation is likely to hold a meeting where the details will be reviewed and the nod will be given after evaluation.
For Covid-19 vaccination, as many as 2,360 participants were trained during a national-level training of state immunisation officers, cold chain officers, information, education and communication officials and development partners.
The dry run will be a mock drill. Everything except vaccine administering will be tested. Data will be fed to Co-WIN app, cold storage will be tested, the transport of vaccines from cold storage to the sites, crowd management at sites will be checked. For vaccination, as many sites as possible will be used. Hence, the dry runs too will be conducted in all different settings — district hospitals, community health centres or primary health care centre, urban site, private health facility and rural outreach.
The aim of the exercise is to identify challenges and make required changes in the plan so that the final process becomes foolproof.