Dry Run For Covid-19 Vaccine Planned In Four States: Focus On Delivery, Cold Chain, Adverse Event Watch

For two days at the beginning of next week, India will hold a dry run for the largest and most ambitious mass immunisation programme in its history.

The Centre has chosen eight districts in four states to conduct the dry run of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination. The states that will witness the two-day dry run on December 28-29 are Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Reuters

With several countries around the world having already begun vaccination against the novel coronavirus, India could be just days away from granting regulatory approval for the shot. The inoculation exercise is expected to begin soon after. With over 10 million total infections, India is the world¡¯s second worst affected country, even though daily case numbers have been falling consistently over the past three months.

¡°Two districts each from all these four states have been identified where this dry run will be conducted simultaneously on these two days,¡± confirmed one official in the health ministry who too did not want to be named.

Reuters

Cold storage, transportation arrangements

The dry run will include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, managing crowd at session sites with proper physical distancing, and role of vaccinators and other staff on vaccine related duty.

Special focus will be to check how possible adverse events following immunisation will be dealt with as each session site will have a designated health care facility linked to it to treat people who may develop any discomfort or uneasiness post vaccination, and also how infection control practices will be adhered to during vaccination at the session site so that it doesn¡¯t become ground for disease transmission.

Reuters

Preparations have been on in full swing for the past five months for Covid-19 vaccine delivery so that no time is wasted in managing logistics when a vaccine is available for use in the country.

Delivery process in place

To supervise and assist in Covid-19 vaccine delivery process, a multi-level governance mechanism has been established across all states and Union Territories. There are three types of committees: two at the state level and one at the district level. All these committees have been meeting regularly to chalk out the vaccine delivery plan at the ground level.

The Conversation

Specific training modules have been drafted for medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels.

As per current estimates, the Centre will be using 29,000 cold chain points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41, 000 deep freezers, and 300 solar refrigerators across the country for storage and delivery of vaccines. All these equipment have already been provided to states based on their individual requirement.