Deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma On Saturday informed that the dry run for the Covid-19 vaccine will be held at seven sites in the district on December 28 and 29. He said that Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been chosen by the government for the administration of the vaccine in the first phase.
The DC chaired a meeting organised to discuss the same at Bachat Bhawan on Saturday. He was accompanied by the commissioner of police Rakesh Agrawal, joint CP J Elanchezhian, ADC (D) Sandeep Kumar, ADC Jagraon Neeru Katyal Gupta, ADC general Amarjit Bains, civil surgeon Rajesh Kumar Bagga, all SDMs, and other senior officials of the district administration.
Sharma informed that the dry run will be conducted at seven locations (one in each sub-division of the district) namely civil hospital, Ludhiana, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMC&H), Raikot, Jagraon, Machhiwara, Khanna, and Payal.
He said that the activity is aimed at testing the laid-out mechanisms for the vaccination roll-out in the health system. The DC added that the dry run will exercise end to end testing of the Covid-19 vaccination process and will vaccinate pre-identified beneficiaries from specified groups supported by Co-WIN, an electronic application. The primary objective of the dry run includes assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment and testing linkages between planning. Implementation and reporting mechanisms would identify challenges and guideway forward before actual implementation.
The DC informed that in the first phase, more than 30,000 healthcare workers (both government and private) of the district, who have registered themselves on the government portal, would be administered the vaccine, followed by Aanganwari workers, people aged above 50 years, people below 50 years with comorbidities, and others.
{{/usCountry}}The DC informed that in the first phase, more than 30,000 healthcare workers (both government and private) of the district, who have registered themselves on the government portal, would be administered the vaccine, followed by Aanganwari workers, people aged above 50 years, people below 50 years with comorbidities, and others.
{{/usCountry}}He clarified that this vaccine would not be available off the shelf for the time being and would only be administered to people who have got themselves registered on the government portal. He said that upon registration, the beneficiaries will receive an SMS notifying them about the date and place of administration.
He also informed that initially, the dry run is proposed to be conducted in four states, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Gujarat. He said that the immunisation partners, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), would support this activity.