Corona vaccine rollout: Dry run starts in 4 states today amid new virus strain scare

New Delhi, Dec 28: A two-day dry run for the coronavirus vaccination begins in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat and Assam from Monday, amid new virus strain scare.

This comes a day after India registered the lowest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in nearly six months at 18,732.

The mock exercise will be conducted in two districts each of four states at the four corners of the nation - Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Assam - on December 28 and 29.

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 field environment, the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process.

This will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels. This two-day activity is planned on 28th & 29th December 2020, and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt & allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting.

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 management of any possible adverse events following immunisation (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.