Covid-19 vaccine rollout starts today in four states,Everything you need to know about mock drill of Covid-19 vaccination

 

A two-day dry run has been planned by the Centre in four states-Gujarat,Assam,Andhra Pradesh and Punjab on December 28 and 29 as a step to prep up before the actual thing takes off.According to the Health Ministry, each of these four states will plan a dry run in two districts,preferably in different session type settings such as a rural outreach or a private health facility or urban site.The states have been selected considering their geographical locations.

The exercise will include necessary data entry in Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring of vaccine delivery,testing receipt and allocation,deployment of team members,mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries,reporting and evening meeting,the Union Health Ministry said.It will also include test of cold storage and transportation arrangements for Covid-19 vaccine,management of crowd at session sites with proper physical distancing.

This will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels.

The dry run will focus majorly on the managements of any possible adverse events following immunization(AEFI) as well as on adherence and management of infection control practice at the session site to prevent disease transmission.

The mock drill will also comprise monitoring and review at the block and district levels and preparation of feedback,which will be shared with the State and Union Health Ministry.The Union Health Ministry has prepared a detailed checklist for the same,which has been shared with the four states to guide them.To strengthen the capacity of our human resource for Covid-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out,detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administration including medical officers,vaccinators,alternate vaccinators,cold chain handlers,supervisors,data managers,ASHA coordinators and all other involved in the implementation process at different levels.

As many as 2,360 participants were trained during a national level training of trainers,which comprised state immunization officers,cold chains officers,information,education and communication officials and development partners."As on date,state-level training has been completed at all states and Union Territories with participation of more than 7,000 district level trainees,except Lakshadweep which will conduct it on December 29.Cascading down,681 districts have completed the training of medical officers on operational guidelines",the ministry said.

To facilitate redressal of queries on Covid-19 vaccination and Co-WIN portal,the capacity of national helpline-1075 and state helpline-104 has been strengthened.

The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of Covid-19(NEGVAC) has recommended three prioritized populations groups including,healthcare workers(about 1 crore),frontline workers(about 2 crore) and  prioritized age group(about 27 crore).

How vaccine will be stored?

The Covid-19 vaccine will need to be stored in specific temperature as they are temperature sensitive. The Union Health Ministry said the present cold chain system consisting of 85,634 equipment for storage of vaccine at about 28,947 cold chain points across the country will be used.The current cold chain is capable of storing an additional quantity of Covid-19 vaccine required fort the first three crore prioritized population.

Vaccine Candidates In Clinical Trial Stages In India

India has eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates under different stages of trails,including three of its own which could be ready for authorization in coming days.It includes Covishield,Covaxin,AstraZeneca,ZyCoV-D,NVX-CoV2373,Sputnik-V and two Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine.

Why mock drill is needed?

"The test run will enable end-to-end mobilization and assess the readiness of the planned activities for the Covid-19 vaccination process.It will test the usage of Co-WIN in field environment and help to identify the challenges if there are any in the planning,implementation and reporting mechanisms and guide the way towards actual implementation of the envisaged vaccination programme",the Health Ministry said.