Ahead of mega COVID-19 vaccine rollout, second dry run to take place on Friday

New Delhi, Jan 06: Ahead of COVID19 vaccine roll out across India, second round of dry run drill for administering coronavirus vaccines and plug loopholes in logistics and training will take place on Friday in all the states and Union Territories across the country.

The Centre has initiated the process of procuring the vaccine against COVID-19 after regulatory approvals were granted. This would mean that the vaccination drive could start by the end of next week in a phased manner. Reports suggest that the first vaccine shots would be available by January 13.

The mock drill will again test the operational feasibility of CoWIN application in a field environment. Short for Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network, CoWIN is a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive.

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.

The first dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab on December 28-29 with at least 125 intended beneficiaries at five sites in a maximum of two districts each.