Dry run for world's largest vaccination drive begins

States across India are today conducting a dry run to check the best way to vaccinate people against Coronavirus and to identify loopholes in logistics and training that need to be plugged before the first vaccine shot is rolled out.

The dry run has four objectives:
 

1) Assessing the operational feasibility of Co-WIN or COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network application in the field. CoWIN is a digitalised platform to effectively roll out and scale up the mechanism for COVID vaccine distribution
 

2) Identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to the actual rollout of the vaccine. 
 

3) Test cohesiveness in planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms
 

4) To boost the confidence in programme managers at various levels.

10 tasks will be performed during the nation-wide dry run.  These include:
 

1) Planning and preparation for introducing the vaccine
 

2) Creating facilities and users on Co-WIN application
 

3) Session site creation and mapping of sites
 

4) Uploading data of health care worker beneficiaries on Co-WIN

5) Session planning, vaccine development
 

6) Deployment of team members
 

7) Vaccine and logistics mobilization
 

8) Receipt of vaccines by district and vaccine allocation using Co-WIN
 

9) Mock drill of beneficiary vaccination and reporting
 

10) Review meetings at the block, districts and state level for feedback

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has requested every official to ensure that the vaccination sites and official in charge abide by the detailed checklist and SOPs.
 

Re-emphasizing the importance of the exercise that involves mass participation similar to the elections, he said, "Let us attempt to implement it as a real exercise with attention to the minutest detail. Proper coordination will go a long way in building mutual understanding so that the upcoming vaccination drive may proceed without any glitch."