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Country-wide all districts-dry run on COVID-19 vaccine administration on Jan 8

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Health minister meeting State/UT Health Ministers today (January 7), around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members trained in vaccine administration

After the January 2 dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, held at 285 session sites across 125 districts, the health ministry will conduct a second round of dry run/mock drill in all 700+ districts of all States/UTs on January 8.

UP has already conducted an all districts- dry run on January 5 while Haryana is slated to be conducting the dry run in all districts on January 7.

Aimed at ensuring efficient planning and management for vaccine delivery in each district of all States/UTs, 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.

With two COVID-19 vaccines given emergency use authorisation by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) recently, the PIB release stated that the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future, and entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country.

Hon’ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan will be meeting with the State/UT Health Ministers today (January 7) to guide States/UTs on the conduct of dry run. The entire planning of the vaccination drive including beneficiary registration, microplanning and vaccination at the planned session site, will be tested under the leadership of District Collector/District Magistrate.

The dry run will also familiarise the State, District, Block and Hospital level officers on all aspects of COVID-19 roll out. This activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identification of any residual challenges prior to the actual implementation and to provide confidence to the programme managers at all levels to carry out a smooth implementation of the vaccination drive.

The entire vaccination process will be run on the Co-WIN app/software developed by the Health Ministry for real time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine.

This software will assist the programme managers across all levels in conduct of the vaccination sessions. A dedicated 24×7 call centre has also been established for technical queries of Co-WIN users. The cold chain infrastructure (like walk-in-freezers, walk-in-coolers, ice-lined refrigerators, deep freezers) along with sufficient supplies of syringes and other logistics have been ensured to begin COVID-19 vaccination drive, as per the statement.

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 and logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software.

Detailed operational guidelines on all aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, including session planning & management, session site layout & its organisation, AEFI management, IEC messages, infection prevention & control practices etc., have reportedly already been shared with the States/UTs and they have also been oriented on the same.

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