Covid 19: Vaccine dry run in AP, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab to start from Dec 28

Each State will plan it in two districts and preferably in five session type settings including district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach, etc.

This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilization and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN(vaccine app) 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 maybe required in the envisaged process.

The government said this will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels. This two-day activity is planned on December 28 and 29, and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt and allocation to the deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meetings.

This will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper physical distancing.

An important focus of the dry run will be on the management of any possible adverse events following immunization (AEFI). In addition, adherence and management of infection control practices at the session site, to prevent disease transmission. The mock drill will include concurrent monitoring and review at the block and district levels, and preparation of feedback to be shared with the State and Union Health Ministry.

A detailed checklist has been prepared by the Union health Ministry and shared with the four States to guide them in the dry run.

National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has recommended three prioritized population groups including Healthcare Workers (HCWs) (about 1 crore), Frontline Workers (FLWs) (about 2 crores), and Prioritized Age Group (about 27 crore).

As vaccines are temperature sensitive and need to be stored in a specific temperature, the present cold chain system consisting of 85,634 equipment for storage of vaccine at about 28,947 cold chain points across the country will be used for the cold chain administration. The current cold chain is capable of storing an additional quantity of Covid-19 vaccine required for the first 3 Crore prioritized population i.e Health Care Workers and Front Line Workers.

The government noted that to facilitate redressal of queries on COVID-19 vaccination and Co-WIN portal related queries, national 1075 and state 104 Helpline capacity has also been strengthened to address queries beyond their routine support.