A dry run of Covid-19 vaccination programme is being conducted across all states and union territories today. The activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least 3 session sites.
Some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain/have poor
Maharashtra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities along with Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.
The first round of the dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab on December 28-29. No major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run.
According to Union health ministry, the objective of the dry run for Covid-19 vaccine introduction is to “assess operational feasibility in the use of Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application in field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation”. This is also expected to give confidence to programme managers at various levels, it said.
Here’s all you need to know about Covid vaccine dry run:
What is a dry run?
A dry run is aimed at testing the planned operations and the laid out mechanisms for Covid-19 vaccination in the state. It will provide insights into any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the actual drive.
The exercise will include necessary data entry in Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring vaccine delivery, testing receipt and allocation, deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries.
It will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for the Covid-19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper physical distancing.
How states are gearing up for dry run
The Union ministry for health and family welfare said that the detailed checklist has been prepared and shared with the four states to guide them in the dry run.
The dry run would be carried out in five sessions at identified locations with 25 test beneficiaries (healthcare workers) for each session.
Each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in different five-session type settings e.g. district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach, etc
All the beneficiaries will be pre-identified. Beneficiaries are to be compulsory pre-registered on Co-WIN portal and will also require to provide their photo IDs.
After the dry run, authorities will prepare a report for the State Task Force (STF). The STF will review the feedback and guide officials on further actions. The report will also be submitted to the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
How are dry runs being conducted?
The government has already trained participants who will administer the vaccine.
Detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and others.
As many as, 2,360 participants were trained during national-level training comprising of state immunisation officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials and development partner.
The state-level training has been completed in all states and Union Territories (UTs) with the participation of more than 7,000 district level trainees, except Lakshadweep which will conduct on December 29.
Cascading down, 681 districts (49,604 trainees) have completed the training of medical officers on operational guidelines. Vaccination team training has been completed in 1,399 out of 17,831 blocks/planning units, as per government.
Army of 1 lakh ready to administer vaccine
As the vaccine administrators will play an important role in the vaccination process, training of trainers and those who shall administer the vaccine had been taken up across various states.
Around 96,000 vaccinators have been trained for the Covid vaccination programme that the government plans to roll out in January once a vaccine is approved.
State governments, district officials and municipal commissioners have been asked to get ground staff, logistics and IT systems in place to carry out the drive that aims to cover 30 crore ‘priority population’ by July.
