Government set to conduct dry run for COVID vaccine in 4 states | Fusion - WeRIndia

The Government of India is all set to roll out COVID-19 vaccine. It decided to conduct a dry run for the vaccine during December 28 and 29 in four states, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab.

The Union Health Ministry said that the immunisation drive includes entering the data on Co-WIN platform, testing receipt and allotment, arrangement of team members, mock drill with test beneficiaries etc.

In addition to that, cold storge facilities and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, management of crowd at vaccine centres, following COVID-19 protocols like maintaining physical distancing etc. will also include in this process.

Each state will implement it in two districts in different session-type settings. These session types include district hospital, community or primary health centre, urban site, private health facility and rural outreach.

The dry run immunisation drive helps the government to identify the challenges beforehand in the actual vaccination programme. It also eases the actual programme by identifying whether there are any improvements required for the implementation.

Besides, it also helps focus on probable adverse effects of the vaccine and prevent them in future.

Both the block level and district levels will monitor the process and share the feedback with the central and state governments.

The Union Health Ministry has shared a detailed checklist with them to conduct the dry run smoothly.

The Health Ministry in this context said that since the vaccination programme is all set to be rolled out, the government initiated the training of the trainers to administer vaccines across various regions of the country. These training modules are developed for various administrators like medical officers, vaccinators etc. Apart from that, cold chain handlers and  ASHA coordinators are also given training in handling vaccine.

Around 2,300 people were trained in a national level training. These include immunisation officers, cold chain officers, communication officials, development partners etc. At the same time, all state and Union Territories also completed training. Lakshadweep is the only region that has to complete training, which will conduct it on December 29.

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