India to conduct dry run for Covid-19 vaccine on Dec 28, 29

The Government of India has chosen Punjab to conduct the dry run of COVID-19 vaccine on December 28 and 29, said Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Thursday.

The districts Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been selected as the two districts where the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine will be carried out and five sights would be identified in each district, Balbir Singh Sidhu said in a press communique.

The dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system.

"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 the dry run included assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in the field environment and to test linkages between planning. Implementation and reporting mechanisms would identify challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation," Balbir Singh Sidhu said.

The dry run is proposed to be conducted in four states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab.

The Minister said that immunisation partners the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the state-level will support this dry run activity.

"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," he added.