The Centre is gearing up for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine and will start a dry run in four states from Monday (December 28, 2020) even as the fear of the new strain of the virus looms large. As a step to prep up for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, and to assess the readiness of the planned activities, a dry run has been initially planned in four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab considering the geographical locations.
"As the vaccine administrators will play an important role in the coronavirus vaccination process, training of trainers and those who shall administer the vaccine has been taken up across various states," said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
According to MoHFW, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators, and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels to strengthen the capacity of human resource for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out.
"The training includes all operational aspects of training as the organisation of vaccination sessions, use of Co-WIN IT platform for the management of the entire vaccination process, deployment of HR cold chain preparedness, management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste management, infection prevention protocols, etc," the MoHFW stated.
Each state has planned it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings, for example, district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach, etc.
"This will exercise enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in the field environment, the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process," said the MoHFW.
They added that this will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels.
