Health Ministry to launch another countrywide vaccine dry run on January 8

Ahead of the actual Covid-19 vaccine rollout, the Health Ministry has planned another dry run on Friday, January 8 in over 700 districts across the country.

The government wants to ensure that all preparation to vaccinate citizens are on right track.

In the initial phase, the Health Ministry has planned to vaccinate three crore people free of cost. It will decide about the remaining 27 crores in the next stage.

Two states Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have either already conducted or will finish the mock drill on January 5 and January 7.

#IndiaFightsCorona #Unite2FightCorona

Another Mock Drill on #COVID19 #Vaccine administration to be conducted in all States/UTs on 8th January 2021.https://t.co/EeFT8aAXah pic.twitter.com/8x0ByqUdFF

— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January 6, 2021

In the past one month, the Ministry has conducted several dry runs along with states and union territories to find out the on-ground challenges in the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme and resolve it.

“Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members have been trained on the process to be followed at the vaccination sites which include beneficiary verification, vaccination, cold chain & logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software,” the Health Ministry said in a press release.

In the dry run, beneficiaries will be registered on the government-developed application ‘Co-WIN’ and the district collector or district magistrate will look after the microplanning and vaccination at three types of session sites in each district. These sites will be a public health facility, a private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites.

“The dry run will also familiarize the State, District, Block and Hospital level officers on all aspects of COVID-19 roll out,” the press release adding that the activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation, and reporting mechanisms.