COVID-19 vaccine dry run begins across India, Health Minister visits Delhi's hospital to review drill

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan arrived at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital on Saturday to review the dry run of administering the COVID-19 vaccine.

The dry run will be conducted by all the States and Union Territories governments from today (January 2, 2021).

According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), the objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to "assess operational feasibility in the use of COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application in a field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation".

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain will also attend the vaccine trial program (Dry Run) conducted by the Union Health Ministry at the Maternity ND Child Welfare (MCW) centre in Daryaganj on Saturday.

State-wise dry run drill

In Delhi, the drive is being conducted at three locations - the Daryaganj primary health centre, the government-run Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, and the private Venkateshwara hospital.

Preparation is underway for the dry run of administering the COVID19 vaccine at Area Hospital, Nampally in Hyderabad.

In Maharashtra, the dry run of administering the COVID19 vaccine will be conducted at District Hospital in Pune. "Data of healthcare workers from Maharashtra has been uploaded on CoWIN," said District Civil Surgeon.

The first round of the dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab on 28-29 December 2020 in two districts each where five-session sites with 25 beneficiaries each were identified.

No major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run. All States expressed confidence in the operational guidelines and IT platform for large scale programme implementation.

Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at session sites across the country for COVID-19 vaccination trial run on Saturday and said just like preparations during elections, each member of medical teams should be trained responsibly.

The minister urged every official to ensure that the vaccination sites and officials in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) for vaccination that has been prepared by the Union Health Ministry.

(With agency inputs)