NEW DELHI, Jan 6: As a simulation of the actual execution of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out that is expected to begin in a few days, another round of dry run will be conducted in all districts across States and UTs, except UP and Haryana, on January 8 to ensure efficient planning and management of the immunisation process.
Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run conducted on January 2, including a public health facility (district hospital/medical college), private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites, the Union Health Ministry said today.
In this regard, a meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the Health Ministers of States and Union territories is scheduled to take place on January 7 to guide them on conducting the dry run, the Ministry said.
“The vaccine dry run will be conducted on January 8 in all districts across India, except for UP and Haryana. COVID-19 vaccine dry run has already been conducted in all districts in UP on January 5 and Haryana is conducting it in all its districts tomorrow (Thursday),” an official source said.
“The Central Government is gearing up for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine across the country. Union Ministry of Health has been pro-actively carrying out the preparations for roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine, in collaboration with states and UTs and all stakeholders, over the past couple of months to ensure that the preparations for roll-out are on track,” the ministry said in a statement.
The country’s drugs regulator on Sunday approved Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.
“The roll out of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future. This milestone entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country,” the ministry said.
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 or District Magistrate during the dry run.
The dry run will also familiarize the state, district, block and hospital level officers on all aspects of the COVID vaccine 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 Ministry said.
Meanwhile, India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,03,74,932 with 18,088 infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries are nearing one crore, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll increased to 1,50,114 with 264 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 99,97,272 pushing the national recovery rate to 96.36 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.
The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh for the 16th consecutive day.
There are 2,27,546, active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 2.19 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. (PTI)
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