As the country gears up for the mass vaccination drive in a few days, Delhi will witness the third dry mock-drill on January 8 at various hospitals in the city for smooth implementation of the coronavirus vaccination process.
Nationwide, the dry-run will be held at various session sites of 736 districts across 33 states and union territories, including the national capital, tomorrow. Its objective is to simulate the actual vaccine administration event. The Centre had recently said that the vaccines drive will be rolled out by January 13.
In Delhi, the dry-run will be conducted at various sites, including the All India Insititute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung hospital, National Heart Insititute, Batra Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Mool Chand Kharaiti Hospital, Hakeem Abdul Hameed Hospital, ESI hospital, Al-Shifa Multispecialty Hospital, Bansal Hospital.
It will also be conducted at IBS hospital, Jeevan Hospital and Nursing Home, MHMC, Escorts Hospital, VIMHANS, Holy Family Hospital, RG Stone Urology and Laparoscopy Hospital, Ramakrishna SBV Madanpur Khadar, MCW Gautampuri, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, among others.
This will be the third dry-run. On Wednesday, a dry-run for the coronavirus vaccination roll-out was held at eight sites, including Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba hospital.
Prior to that, a dry-run was conducted at three sites – government-run Guru Teg Bahadur hospital Shahdara, a primary health center in Daryaganj, and the private Venkateshwara Hospital in Dwarka on January 2.
According to the Health Ministry, the objective of the mock drill on Covid-19 vaccination is to simulate the actual vaccine administration event.
The entire planning of the vaccination drive including beneficiary registration, microplanning, and vaccination at the planned session site, will be tested under the leadership of the District Collector and District Magistrate.
The dry-run will also familiarise the state, district, block, and hospital-level officers on all aspects of the COVID-19 roll out.
This activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation, and reporting mechanisms, identification of any residual challenges prior to the actual implementation, and providing confidence to the program managers.
Two vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin have been approved for restricted emergency use. It will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers for free.
