Ahead Of Covid Vaccine Roll Out, Second Dry Run Today; Check State Wise Details

As a simulation of the actual execution of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out that is expected to begin in a few days, another round of dry run will be conducted in all districts across states and UTs, except UP and Haryana, today to ensure efficient planning and management of the immunisation process. The first massive dry run was held on January 2.

Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run conducted on January 2, including a public health facility (district hospital/medical college), private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

The day-long drive today will again test the operational feasibility of CoWIN application in a field environment. Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network or CoWIN is a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive.

In this regard, a meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the health ministers of states and Union territories is scheduled to take place on January 7 to guide them on conducting the dry run, the ministry said. 

"The vaccine dry run will be conducted on January 8 in all districts across India, except for UP and Haryana. COVID-19 vaccine dry run has already been conducted in all districts in UP on January 5 and Haryana is conducting it in all its districts tomorrow (Thursday)," an official source said.

"The Central government is gearing up for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine across the country. Union Ministry of Health has been proactively carrying out the preparations for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine, in collaboration with states and UTs and all stakeholders, over the past couple of months to ensure that the preparations for roll-out are on track," the ministry said in a statement.

Here are the state wise details of dry run:

Delhi

The second dry run for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi will span across at least three districts of the national capital, officials said.

These districts are South Delhi, South East Delhi and North West Delhi, they added.

The three sites for the drill held on January 2 were — GTB Hospital Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj, and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.

Goa

As many as 18,277 healthcare workers in Goa will be administered the Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase, a senior health department official said.

The state task force for the Covid-19 vaccination drive met in Panaji during the day. The meeting, chaired by state health secretary Amit Satija, was held ahead of the second dry run for vaccination today.

"The second dry run will be held at six government facilities  Valpoi, Candolim, Mapusa (North Goa), Quepem, Chinchinim, Margao (South Goa) - and private facilities, Manipal Hospital at Dona Paula (North Goa) and Victor Hospital in Margao (South Goa)," the senior official who attended the meeting said.

Uttarakhand

A dry run in preparation for vaccination against Covid will be held in all 13 districts of Uttarakhand today, an official said.

The dry run will be conducted at 130 health centres across the state, 10 each in every district, National Health Mission (NHM) Director Sonika said.

Puducherry

The Union Health Ministry had a video conference with the Health Department officials on Thursday and it was apprised that second dry run of the vaccination would be held in nine centres on January 8, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said in a press release.

She said the Union Health Ministry through the video conference reviewed the preparedness of the Puducherry government on the Covid-19 vaccination.

Karnataka

Karnataka has planned to conduct Covid vaccination dry run at a total of 263 different health facilities across the state, Health Minister K Sudhakar said.

"As per the Central government's guidelines at least at three places in a district the dry run will be held, so in 263 different health facilities across the state the dry run will be held tomorrow," Sudhakar said.

Kerala

The dry run will be conducted at medical colleges, district hospitals, private hospitals and urban/ rural health centres, Kerala health minister KK Shailaja said.

It will take place from 9 am to 11 am and 25 health workers will participate at each centre with strict adherence to Covid vaccination protocols, Shailaja said. She added that this follows the first dry run conducted at 6 centres in four districts on January 4.

The entire planning of the vaccination drive including beneficiary registration, microplanning and vaccination at the planned session site will be tested under the leadership of District Collector or District Magistrate during the dry run. 

The dry run will also familiarize the state, district, block and hospital level officers on all aspects of the Covid vaccine roll out. 

"This activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identification of any residual challenges prior to the actual implementation and to provide confidence to the programme managers at all levels to carry out a smooth implementation of the vaccination drive," the ministry said.

The Union health ministry will be in constant touch with the states and UTs throughout the day to seek feedback, provide support and ensure timely resolution of the identified challenges before the actual vaccination roll-out.

To facilitate the entire vaccination process a software named 'Co-WIN' has been developed by the health ministry for real time information on vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for the coronavirus vaccine. 

This software will assist the programme managers across all levels in conduct of the vaccination sessions. A dedicated 24x7 call centre has also been established for technical queries of Co-WIN users. The cold chain infrastructure (like walk-in-freezers, walk-in-coolers, ice-lined refrigerators, deep freezers) along with sufficient supplies of syringes and other logistics have been ensured to begin COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members have been trained on the process to be followed at the vaccination sites which include beneficiary verification, vaccination, cold chain and logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software.  

In a massive nation-wide exercise on January 2, an end-to-end mock drill on COVID-19 vaccine administration was conducted in all states and UTs at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts. 

More than 75 lakh beneficiaries have been registered till date on the Co-WIN software, the ministry had said earlier.

The entire operational planning and IT platform have been field tested in four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Gujarat -- on December 28 and 29 and on the basis of the feedback received minor enhancements have been made in the IT system, it had said.

With PTI inputs