Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 31: The new year is expected to begin with the good news of effective vaccine availability to bring the scar of 2020, the Corona pandemic, under control with the central government asking all the states and union territories to gear up their respective administrations for mass immunization.
While the government is expected to take a decision on the emergency use of the Oxford university /AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Covaxin being developed indigenously by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech within the next few days, the centre on Thursday asked all the states and UTs to conduct dry run of Covid vaccine administration on Saturday to test their preparedness to undertake the massive operation.
The activity is to be conducted in at least three session sites. Some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain and have poor logistical support.
The Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness at session sites for COVID-19 vaccination with the respective health department secretaries and in-charge of medical services and other high officials of various states and UTs to gear up the machinery for the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine across the country in the new year.
This was even as the Covid situation in the country continued to record marked improvements during the last fortnight or so. With 21,822 new cases of coronavirus infections detected on Wednesday, the tally on Thursday stood at one crore and 2.66 lakhs. As many as 299 deaths were reported on Wednesday. While 26,000 were declared as recovered, there are 2.57 lakh active infections with the two worst-hit states Kerala reporting 6,268 and Maharashtra detecting 3,537 new infections during the last 24 hours.
Most of the states and UTs have imposed night curfew for the year-ending days after the union health ministry has asked all states to keep a strict vigil on New Year celebrations that could be potential Covid-19 super-spreader events and also to curb crowding as a precautionary measure during the winter season.
An official spokesman of the union health ministry said the objective of the Dry Run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction was to assess operational feasibility in the use of 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.
The planning for the vaccine introduction will be as per the Operational Guidelines issued by the Ministry on 20th December 2020. For each of the three Session Sites, the concerned Medical Officer In-charge will identify 25 test beneficiaries (healthcare workers). The States/UTs have been asked to ensure that the data of these beneficiaries is uploaded in Co-WIN. These beneficiaries will also be available at the session site for the dry run. The States and UTs shall prepare the facilities and users to be created on Co-WIN application including uploading the data of Health Care Worker (HCW) beneficiaries.
The States/UTs have been asked to ensure physical verification of all proposed sites for adequacy of space, logistical arrangements, internet connectivity, electricity, safety etc; prepare at least three model session sites in each State (at State capital) for demonstration; ensure that the Model Sites have separate entry and exit in a ‘three-room set-up’ with adequate space outside for awareness generation activities; display all IEC material at these sites; ensure that all SOPs and protocols are being practiced at the identified sites in an ideal environment along with vaccination teams to be identified and trained in all aspects. The dry run will also equip the State and UT administration in management of vaccine supply, storage and logistics including cold chain management.
As the vaccine administrators will play an important role in the vaccination process, training of trainers and those who shall administer the vaccine has been taken up across various States. Around 96,000 vaccinators have been trained for this purpose. 2,360 participants have been trained in National Training of Trainers and over 57,000 participants trained in District level training in 719 districts.
Earlier this week, a two-day first round of dry run was successfully conducted in four selected states, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab on December 28 and 29. In each state, two districts with five session sites and 25 beneficiaries each were identified. No major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run, the spokesman said.
