#Coronavirus: Dummy Vaccination Starts In These 4 States From Next Week (Full Details)

The much-awaited moment has finally arrived. The emergence of COVID 19 vaccines gave a sense of relief to the entire world. But the formulation of vaccines is just half part of this crucial journey. The government still needs to figure out an efficient way of distributing vaccines.

The Central Government is going to rehearse the distribution process of the Covid-19 vaccine in a few selected states in a two day activity.

Where Is The Dry Run Planned?

The central government is planning to run through the supply of COVID 19 
to check the transportations of the vaccines, testing of the vaccination, monitoring the executability of the plan and the overall efficiency of the distribution process. 
This practice will also help the managers to know the loopholes in the system which can be further resolved while actual distribution.

The dry run will be conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab. These states were shortlisted considering their geography. The practice is planned in five different sectors including district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach for each state.

The practice exercise to be conducted on 28th & 29th December 2020, planned precisely to check the process right from data entry, vaccine receipts, allotment of team members to transportation, appropriate storage, and crowd management considering social distancing. 

What Preparations Are Made Till Now?

The government has already trained 2,360 immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners at a national level Training program. In the state-level training, conducted in all states except Lakshadweep, more than 7000 district level trainees completed training. 49,604 trainees from 681 districts have gone through the operational guideline for Medical Officers. 

“To strengthen the capacity of our human resource for COVID19 vaccine introduction and roll-out, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels,” the government release said.

How Are The Vaccines Going To Be Managed?

Considering the limited number of vaccines, the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has given Healthcare Workers (HCWs) (about 1 crore), Frontline Workers (FLWs) (about 2 crores), and Prioritized Age Group (about 27 crores) the first priority to access the vaccines.

Besides, another factor that needs to be considered is the storing conditions. Since the vaccines are supposed to be stored at a specific temperature in cold conditions, 85,634 equipment at 28,947 cold chain points is set up across the country. The cold chain administration has additional space to store the vaccines for the prioritized population of nearly 3 crores.

According to the health ministry, there are six vaccines Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCoV-D, Sputnik V, NVX-CoV2373, and recombinant protein antigen-based vaccine which is under clinical testing currently.

The government has also fortified the COVID-19 vaccination and Co-WIN helpline portal to answer people’s queries by increasing the capacity of national 1075 and state 104 Helpline.