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New Delhi: Ahead of the roll-out of coronavirus vaccine in a few days, another dry-run will be conducted across the country on January 8.
The Central Government is gearing up for the roll-out of COVID19 vaccine across the country. Union Health Ministry has been pro-actively carrying out the preparations for roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine, in collaboration with States/UTs and all stakeholders, over the past couple of months to ensure that the preparations for roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine are on track.
Two COVID vaccines have been given emergency use authorisation by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) recently. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future. This milestone entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country.
As a simulation of actual execution, another round of dry run/mock drill is planned on January 8, 2021, to ensure efficient planning and management for vaccine delivery in each district of all States/UTs. Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run including a public health facility (District Hospital/Medical College), private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites.
In this regard, a meeting of Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan with the State/UT Health Ministers is scheduled on January 7, 2021, to guide States/UTs on the conduct of dry run. 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/District Magistrate. The dry run will also familiarize the State, District, Block and Hospital level officers on all aspects of COVID-19 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.
MoHFW will be in constant touch with the States/UTs throughout the day to seek feedback and provide support and, ensure timely resolution of the identified challenges before the actual vaccination roll-out.
To facilitate the entire vaccination process, a software, ‘Co-WIN’, has been developed by the Health Ministry for real-time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine. This software will assist the programme managers across all levels in the 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 & logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software. Detailed operational guidelines on all aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, including session planning & management, session site layout & its organization, AEFI management, IEC messages, infection prevention & control practices etc., have already been shared with the States/UTs and they have also been oriented on the same.
On January 2, almost all states and Union Territory conducted a dry run at 285 session sites spread across 125 districts to assess ability and readiness of authorities to administer shots to hundreds of millions of people, including many in remote corners of the country.
It was conducted to test the end-to-end planned operations and the mechanism that has been set up to ensure smooth conduct of the Covid-19 vaccination.
On December 28 and 29, the first dry run was conducted in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Rajkot and Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar of Punjab and Sonitpur and Nalbari districts of Assam.
The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive. It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that vaccination drive will be rolled-out by January 13.
