Coronavirus vaccine: All states to begin vaccine dry run from January 2

All states will start the dry run for coronavirus vaccination from January 2, 2021. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of the Union Health Ministry that concluded on Thursday, December 31. Earlier, only four states - Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Assam, had carried out a two-day dry run to review the readiness of the mechanism laid out for the COVID-19 immunisation drive.

Following this, the field feedback, of the first day of the dry run, was assessed on December 29 via video conferencing with state and district programme officers by the joint secretary (Public Health).

"All the states expressed satisfaction in terms of operational approach and use of IT platform to ensure transparency and effective monitoring of vaccination processes expected to cover a large number of people across the country," the ministry said.

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"Additional suggestions on IT platform were also noted for further enhancement of Co-WIN platform. Detailed insights and feedback obtained will help enrich the operational guidelines and IT platform, and will strengthen the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out plan," it added.

The dry run is being conducted to check the feasibility of the plan involving real-time monitoring via Co-WIN app and will not involve vaccine administration.

Aspects like management of probable side effects after vaccination, checks on cold storage, and plugging the leaks in transportation arrangements will also be evaluated.

As many as 2,360 participants were trained during a national-level training of state immunisation officers, cold chain officers, information, education, communication officials and development partners.

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