Government plans two-day vaccine dry run in four states

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has started making all preparation to roll out the mass vaccination process in the county.

Though the government hasn’t announced the exact date from which the process to administer vaccine will start, it has prepared training modules for health officials at various levels such as vaccine administrators, cold chain handlers, data managers, supervisors among others.

These health officials will be trained for several activities such as how to arrange vaccine sessions, how to use government application Co-WIN to manage and remain aware of the entire process of vaccination, cold chain preparedness, etc.

“2,360 participants were trained during national level Training of Trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners, etc,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has informed.

The government has also informed that except Lakshadweep, all other states and Union Territories have trained over 7000 district level trainees.

Besides, 49,604 trainees from 681 districts have done the training of medical officers on operational guidelines.

The vaccination team training is going on and it has been completed in 1399 blocks out of 17831.

The Health Ministry has also set up two helpline numbers – 1975 as central and 104 for states – to answer queries regarding vaccination and the Co-WIN portal.

“As a step to prep up for the administration of COVID-19 vaccine, and to assess the readiness of the planned activities, a dry run has been planned in four states to start with, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab considering the geographical locations,” the Health Ministry said in a press release.