Covid-19 vaccination: India to hold 2nd dry run today

NEW DELHI, Jan 7
A second dry run of the Covid-19 vaccination will be held across all States and Union Territories on 8 January, the Central Govern-ment said on Wednesday.
"In a massive country-wide exercise, another mock drill on Covid-19 vaccine administration to be conducted in all States and UTs on 8 January. Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members trained in vaccine administration," said the Government.
The first dry run across the country was conducted on 2 January to plug loopholes in logistics and the process of the vaccination drive.
The aim of the drill is to test the linkages between planning and implementation and identify the chal- lenges. It will also test the operational feasibility in the use of CoWIN application -- a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive -- in a field environment.
In the first round, each district conducted the dry run at three sites or more which included a public health facility (District Hospital/Medical College), private health facility, and rural or urban outreach sites.
All the State and district officials were trained on the Operational Guidelines and for conducting the dry-run. The preparation to handle any Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) at all session sites and functionality of the call centers was also tested. It was supervised by the District Collectors.
The CoWIN software has been developed by MoHFW for real-time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of bene- ficiaries for Covid-19 vaccine.
This software will assist the programme managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and a digital certificate will be generated upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule. More than 75 lakh beneficiaries have been registered on CoWIN software till date.
On 3 January, India had granted accelerated approval to two Covid-19 vaccines — Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech, and Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said that the vaccine rollout will happen within 10 days from the date of approval.
                    Courtesy Live Mint