New Delhi (NVI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today reviewed the preparedness for the dry run for COVID-19 vaccination which will take place across the country on January 2.
During the virtual meeting, Vardhan stated that the purpose of the COVID-19 vaccination dry run is to be ready for the actual roll-out. “We are using past experiences to roll out the vaccination,” he said.
“The lists of health workers have been created and it will be uploaded on COVID-19 platform. Just like we prepare during elections, the same way we need to train each member of all medical teams responsibly,” he said.
The minister also informed that after training over 2,000 master trainers at the national level, the training is underway at the state and district level in over 700 districts. The procedure is similar to conducting elections where the polling team at a booth is trained.
Vardhan further stressed that the target of this exercise is that the minutest details are thoroughly researched.
“At least two vaccines have sent their applications to Drug Controller and experts for approval, their data is being studied pro-actively,” he added.
At the high-level meeting, the senior officials of the health ministry apprised Vardhan on various improvements that have been made to make tomorrow’s Pan-India dry-run glitch free.
These improvements include increasing number of telephone operators to answer every possible query from the teams on ground conducting the exercise, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
“Block level task forces have been constituted for physical inspection of the sites and all workers have been oriented for the purpose with the dissemination of FAQs on the process, among other issues,” it added.
Vardhan also spoke with officials of Delhi namely Amit Singla, Health Secretary, District Magistrates and District Immunization Officers of Shahdara, Central and South-West districts of Delhi where the three sites of Delhi are located.
These three sites are Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka, the statement noted.
Yesterday, the ministry said that a dry run for COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted by all States and Union Territories on January 2 in at least three session sites, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges.
Earlier, the dry run was successfully conducted in the four states of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat on December 28 and 29.
-RJV/ARK
