Covid vaccinations' dry run in 4 states next week

New Delhi: Gearing up for the COVID-19 vaccination, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has planned a dry run on December 28 and 29 in four states of Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to assess the readiness of the mechanism laid out for the virus inoculation drive.

As per the Union Health ministry, the exercise will include necessary data entry in Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring of vaccine delivery, testing receipt and allocation, deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries as well as reporting and evening meeting.

It will also include testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for Covid-19 vaccine, management of crowd at session sites with proper physical distancing, the ministry said, adding that each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in five different session-type settings — district hospital, Community Health Centre (CHC) or Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC), urban site, private health facility and rural outreach.

"This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of Covid-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment, linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process," the Health ministry said.