Uttar Pradesh lays plan for COVID-19 vaccine dry run on January 5

Lucknow, Jan 04: With vaccines for coronavirus likely to be announced soon, a plan is being made in Uttar Pradesh to vaccinate about 51,000 healthcare workers first. This will be followed by frontline workers and then elderly and people with comorbidities.

In a meeting, chief medical officer Sanjay Bhatnagar informed district and senior police officials about the plan. "In all, 40 cold chain points and 510 vaccination sites are being made for Covid vaccination," the CMO told officials on Sunday.

According to reports, the police will ensure smooth and safe transport of the vaccine from cold chain points to vaccination sites during COVID inoculation drill on January 5 and also when the actual vaccination takes place.

A press statement said that one vaccination team would vaccinate 100 beneficiaries. There would be up to 180 vaccination sessions run by about 350 vaccination teams.

Lucknow will have the dry run at 12 places which includes six places that have already had the dry run on January 2 - King George's Medical University, PGI, community health centres Mal and Malihabad, Lohia institute and Sahara hospital.

The other six places are Medanta hospital, Lok Bandhu hospital, RSM Hospital, Era Medical College and community health centres Indira Nagar and Kakori. Home guards, policemen and anganwadi workers will be deployed during the dry run.

"We have had a dry run on January 2 and a second dry run in Lucknow on January 5 will ensure all issues are sorted out. This will pave the way for smooth vaccination when it is announced," said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.

It was decided that for the dry run scheduled to begin at 10 am, vaccinators should reach at 9 am along with the beneficiaries to be vaccinated in the drill. In the first dry run, beneficiaries could not reach on time due to some technical issue.