Punjab to conduct dry run of Covid vaccine on 28-29 December

CHANDIGARH: The Government of India has chosen Punjab to conduct the dry run of Covid-19 vaccine on 28-29 December 2020. Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been selected as the two districts where the dry run shall be carried out and five sights would be identified in each district. It was disclosed by the Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu in press communiqué.

Disclosing this, Sidhu said that the dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system. It will provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the Covid-19 drive. The dry run is to be conducted in one or two districts, under the overall leadership of the District Collector/Magistrate.

The minister said that immunisation partners UNDP and the WHO at state level would support this activity. All activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation (micro-planning), session site management (with test beneficiaries) to reporting & evening debriefing are to be covered in this 2 day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day.

Feedback of the dry run in District & State Task Force will be pertinent for remedial action (if required). The dry run is to be conducted between 28th and 29th December 2020, he said.

The minister said that the dry run will exercise end to end testing of Covid-19 vaccination process and will vaccinate pre-identified beneficiaries from specified groups supported by Co-WIN, an electronic application. The primary objective of dry run included assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment and to test linkages between planning. Implementation and reporting mechanisms would identify challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation. He said that dry run is proposed to be conducted in four states—Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab.