The second round of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine dry run is scheduled today. Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will be visiting Tamil Nadu to review preparedness and oversee mock vaccination drills, according to an official statement. Today's dry run will be carried out in 736 districts across 33 states and Union Territories (UTs).
The Union Health Minister will visit the sessions site at Government General Hospital, Chennai followed by the one at Government Omandurar Hospital, Chennai. In the afternoon, Dr Harsh Vardhan will visit the private vaccination centre in Apollo Hospital, Chennai after a brief visit to the General Medical Store Depot (GMSD) in Periamedu. This is one of the four national vaccine storage facilities, the other three at Mumbai, Kolkata and Karnal.
Thereafter, Dr Harsh Vardhan will visit the vaccination Centre at Chengalpattu. He will be visiting the Hindustan Bio-Tech Ltd. Campus at Chengalpattu after concluding his supervision at these sites.
Earlier, Dr Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with the health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and UTs to review the preparedness of the vaccination mock drill in their respective areas.
He also reassured all state health ministers that the cold chain infrastructure-which will be used for storing vials, had been sufficiently upgraded to ensure last-mile delivery and adding that adequate supplies of syringes and other logistics had also been provided for.
Ahead of the mock drill in the state, Chief Minister K Palaniswami ordered to take up measures on a war footing for the dry run and all the district collectors are engaged in taking necessary steps to conduct it in their respective districts, health secretary Radhakrishnan said. He added that initially healthcare, frontline workers and senior citizens would be administered vaccine doses.
