India is gearing up with “realistic” roadmap of Covid-19 vaccine distribution as the government is set to begin a dry run of its vaccination drive.
The Centre has chosen Punjab to conduct a dry run of COVID-19 vaccine on December 28 and 29, state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Thursday.
“The districts of Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been selected for the dry run,” he said in an official statement in Chandigarh.
What is a dry run for Covid-19?
The dry run of the vaccination will enable India to understand any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the COVID-19 drive. It is also aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for the vaccination roll-out in the health system.
This exercise enables end-to-end mobilization and testing of the Covid-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and checks the usage of Co-WIN,” the government said.
Who’s aiding the immunization drive?
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the state level will support this activity.
The two-day dry run activity in the state will cover all activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation, session site management to reporting, and evening debriefing are to be covered in this two-day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day.
Which other states to undergo dry run for Covid-19
Vaccinating 1.3 billion people requires extraordinary communication, planning, and coordination.
The dry run drive is proposed to be conducted in four states– Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab to ensure the safe delivery of the vaccine. The government has also asked officials to complete all preparations for the prospective Covid-19 vaccination drive, including “robust cold-chain maintenance set-up” in states.
Six Covid-19 vaccine candidates
There are six COVID-19 vaccine candidates in different clinical trial stages in India.It includes Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila and Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik-V.
The list also contains NVX-CoV2373 by SII, HGCO19 by Geneva, and two unlabeled vaccines-Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Limited-and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.
Plan for rollout
To strengthen the capacity of India’s human resource for Covid-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out, detailed training modules are developed for various categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and every one others involved within the implementation process at different levels.
Over 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 training includes all operational aspects of training like organization of vaccination sessions, use of Co-WIN IT platform for management of the entire vaccination process, deployment of HR Cold chain preparedness, management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste management, infection prevention protocols etc.
