Govt decides to conduct dry run of COVID-19 vacccine in Punjab

Wait for vaccine against the coronavirus may be over soon. The government has decided to conduct the dry run of COVID-19 vacccine in Punjab next week. According to a statement released by the state government, the dry run will be conducted in Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts on December 28 and 29 at five locations.

The dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system, Punjab's Health Minister Balbir Singh said.

"It will provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the COVID-19 drive. The dry run is to be conducted in one or two districts, under the overall leadership of District Collector/Magistrate," he said.

The minister said that immunization partners UNDP and the WHO at state level would support this activity. All activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation (micro-planning), session site management



(with test beneficiaries) to reporting and evening debriefing are to be covered in this 2 day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day.

Feedback of dry run in District and State Task Force will be pertinent for remedial action (if required). The dry run is to be conducted between 28th and 29th December 2020, he said.

The minister said that the dry run will exercise end to end testing of COVID-19 vaccination process and will vaccinate pre-identified beneficiaries from specified groups supported by Co-WIN, an electronic application.

The primary objective of dry run included assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in field environment and to test linkages between planning. Implementation and reporting mechanisms would identify challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation.

The vaccination dry run has also been proposed  in other states such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, the minister said.