Government of India (GoI) has chosen Punjab to conduct the dry run of CoViD-19 vaccine on December 28 and 29. Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been selected as the two districts where the dry run for Covid-19 vaccine shall be carried out and five sights would be identified in each district, disclosed Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
He said that dry run is proposed to be conducted in 4 states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab
It will be conducted under the overall leadership of District Collector/Magistrate and immunisation partners UNDP and WHO would support this activity at state level.
Sidhu said that it is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for vaccination roll-out and will provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks.
All activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation (micro-planning), session site management (with test beneficiaries) to reporting and evening debriefing are to be covered in this two-day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day. Feedback of the dry run will be pertinent for remedial action (if required).
The Minister said that it will exercise end-to-end testing of the vaccination process and will vaccinate pre-identified beneficiaries from specified groups supported by Co-WIN, an electronic application. The primary objective included assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in field environment and to test linkages between planning.
