Coronavirus vaccine dry run: Second mock drill on COVID-19 vaccine administration across India on Jan 8

Ahead of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, a second dry run will take place on January 8 across all districts of the country, except in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday.

While Uttar Pradesh has already conducted the dry run in all districts on January 5, Haryana is scheduled to organise the same on January 7.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will also meet Health Ministers of all the states/Union Territories (UTs) on Thursday to guide States/UTs on the conduct of dry run.

"As a simulation of actual execution, another round of dry run/mock drill in all 700+ districts of all States/UTs is planned on January 8, 2021 to ensure efficient planning and management for vaccine delivery in each district of all States/UTs," the Ministry said.

Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run including a public health facility (District Hospital/Medical College), private health facility, and rural or urban outreach sites.

The Ministry said that 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 first dry run of the vaccination drive took place across 125 districts covering all States/UTs on January 2. The dry run was also conducted to familiarise the state, district, block, and hospital-level officers on all aspects of the COVID-19 rollout.

The dry run was aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system and to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment for planning, implementation, and reporting at the block, district, and state level.

COVID-19 vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have been granted permission for restricted use in emergency situations, said Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday.

Meanwhile, India's coronavirus tally reached 1,03,74,932 after 18,088 fresh infections were reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the Union Health Ministry, 264 deaths have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours.

The total number of active cases stands at 2,27,546 while the total recoveries have reached 99,97,272. The death toll stands at 1,50,114.

(ANI)