Odisha: COVID-19 Vaccine Dry Run Begins Today At 31 Places

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is ready to conduct the dry run for COVID-19 vaccination from today. The dry run is part of the nation-wide exercise to keep all infrastructure in place so that the programme is conducted without any glitches ahead of the mass vaccination drive.

The vaccination programme will be conducted at 31 places- 30 district headquarters hospitals and the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar- across the State on Saturday.

"Odisha is the only state where we are conducting dry run at 31 places. The dry run is conducted to ensure smooth vaccination after the rollout of a vaccine," informed additional chief secretary (Health) Pradipta Mohapatra.

The massive exercise comes a day after Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) recommended the approval of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine candidate manufactured by Serum Institute of India.

"The Oxford Covid-19 vaccine Covishield manufactured by SII was given clearance by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) yesterday. Keeping this in view, we expect the vaccine will arrive in the state any day this month," he said.

At each point, five vaccinators will be deployed along with 25 healthcare workers. There will be three rooms for the mock drill.

The Co-WIN web portal (trial version) is used for dry run vaccination. The user ID for each district and Capital Hospital has been created.

Meanwhile, checking of identity cards and registration of those coming for the vaccination will be done first. After vaccinations, they will be kept in observation for 30 minutes and in case of any side effect, immediate medication will be done.

After arrival of the vaccine in Odisha, it will be kept in the State vaccine store from where it will be sent to districts in two phases.

About 3.70 lakh people including health workers, front line workers and others have been registered for getting the vaccine in the first phase.

(With IANS Inputs)