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Coronavirus: All states and UTs to conduct COVID-19 vaccine dry run on Jan 2

The objective of the dry runs is to provide insights on any gaps or bottle-necks during actual conduct of vaccination.

Coronavirus All states and UTs to conduct COVID-19 vaccine dry run on Jan 2-dnm
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Bengaluru, First Published Dec 31, 2020, 4:40 PM IST

A dry run for Covid vaccine will be held in all states on Saturday, January 2, the government said as authorities hinted that approval for a vaccine could be around the corner.

The activity will test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges, the Centre said on Thursday. The activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least 3 session sites.

This will be the second trial in the country for Covid-19 vaccine administration after four states - Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat - did a mock drill on December 28 and 29.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with all states and Union Territories to review the preparedness at session sites and noted that the objective of the dry run for Covid-19 vaccine introduction is to assess operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application in field environment.

“This is also expected to give confidence to programme managers at various levels,” he said.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said the two-day mock drill showed India is ready to start inoculation. "All the four participating states are satisfied with systems put in place for COVID-19 vaccination process," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The countrywide dry run comes amid anticipation of a launch of a vaccine in the New Year. Today, the country's Drugs Controller General Dr VG Somani said, "Probably we will have a new year with something in hand".

The objective of the dry runs is to provide insights on any gaps or bottle-necks during actual conduct of vaccination.

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