Infrastructure Ready, Preparation in Final Stage For COVID Vaccination Dry Run, Says Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

After conducting a dry run of Covid-19 vaccination in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat on December 28 and 29, the Centre will now extend the drill to the rest of the country.

Ahead of the Centre’s dry run of the vaccination drive against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in all states and Union territories on Saturday, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday held a review meeting with the officials of the Delhi Government and took stock of the preparedness.

After conducting a dry run of Covid-19 vaccination in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat on December 28 and 29, the Centre will now extend the drill to the rest of the country.

“Target of this exercise is that minutest details are thoroughly researched. At least two vaccines have sent their applications to Drug Controller and experts for approval, their data are being studied pro-actively,” Vardhan said during the video meeting, according to ANI.

“The lists of health workers have been created and will be uploaded on Covid platform. Just like we prepare during elections, the same way we need to train each member of all medical teams responsibly,” Vardhan said. “After training over 2,000 master trainers at the national level, the training is underway at the state and district level, in over 700 districts. The procedure is similar to conducting elections where the team at a booth is also trained,” he added.

In vaccine dry run, the entire process of transporting the vaccines from storage to the site, administering them to candidates, feeding data on Co-WIN app is practised without any real vaccine.

All state capitals will conduct dry runs in at least three session sites on Saturday. Some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain or have poor logistical support.

The plan to extend the dry run to all states and Union territories comes amid the Drug Controller General of India’s (DCGI’s) indication that India might start the New Year with a vaccine against Covid-19.