India rehearses for massive Covid vaccination drive

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday conducted a massive nationwide mock drill on the Covid-19 vaccine administration at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts.The exercise comes at a crucial stage as India is set to roll out the first vaccine shots to the public. An expert panel of the central drug authority has approved two Covid-19 vaccines — Serum Institute's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin — for emergency use.They are both awaiting final regulatory nod. Two more vaccine candidates are in advance stages of development.Army of vaccinatorsThe government said that Saturday's dry run was conducted successfully across 125 districts in the country."Each district conducted the dry run at three sites or more which included a public health facility (district hospital/medical college), private health facility, and rural or urban outreach sites," a statement released by the government said.It said that as many as 1,14,100 vaccinators were trained during the dry run while over 75 lakh beneficiaries have been registered on the Co-WIN software till date."This dry run was aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for Covid-19 vaccination rollout in the health system and to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in field environment for planning, implementation and reporting at the block, district and state level," the statement said. It said that exercise was also conducted to familiarise the state, district, block and hospital level officers on all aspects of the vaccine rollout."The states/UTs conducted the dry run from 9am across the country in a seamless manner. The activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation & micro planning, vaccine allocation, session site management with test beneficiaries, reporting mechanism, etc were covered in this one-day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day," the government said. It added that the preparation to handle any Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) at all session sites and functionality of the call centers was also tested. The government said all states and UTs have expressed complete satisfaction on the successful conduct of the dry run.The dry run ended with review meetings at the district and state level to discuss the issues and challenges encountered during the exercise.'Free vaccines for all'Earlier today, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan appealed to people not to be misguided by "rumours" regarding the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine, and said the most prioritised beneficiaries would be vaccinated for free.Vardhan stressed that there would be no compromise on any protocol while approving the vaccine.The minister, who visited two mock vaccination sites in Delhi to review the drill, said free vaccines would be provided in the first phase of the inoculation drive to the most prioritised beneficiaries, including one crore healthcare and two crore frontline workers.He added that details were being finalised about how 27 crore priority beneficiaries — those above 50 years of age and those below it having comorbidities — would be vaccinated until July.Vardhan said the entire exercise of the vaccination process, including training of personnel, was being systematically taken forward."Detailed guidelines have been issued to multiple stakeholders after extensive deliberations, paying attention to each and every minute aspect," he said.Vardhan appreciated the tireless efforts being made by multiple stakeholders, including the central and state government officials who have worked proactively in the last few months to ensure the success of this humongous operation.He said the digital platform, Co-WIN, was the real game changer and would provide real-time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries of the Covid-19 vaccine.This unique platform will assist in automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule, he said.(With inputs from PTI)