Maharashtra’s Covid-19 vaccination dry run in four districts today

State health minister Rajesh Tope said the state administration was fully prepared and they were waiting for the Centre’s approval to start the drive.

With the Covid cases under control, the state government is now focussing on the vaccination drive, which is set to begin soon. The state will hold a dry run for the vaccination programme in four districts in different regions on Saturday.

Pratik Chorge/HT Photo

State health minister Rajesh Tope said the state administration was fully prepared and they were waiting for the Centre’s approval to start the drive. “Dry run basically means a mock drill of the actual vaccination drive, where the entire process, right from sending messages to people, verifying identification of those who reach the health centre, giving them dummy vaccine shots and keeping them under observation will be carried out. This will help in plugging potential problems that might occur while conducting the vaccination drive,” Tope said.

Tope said the Centre wanted them to hold the dry run in one district, but they have chosen four in four different regions. Pune (western Maharashtra), Nagpur (Vidarbha), Nandurbar (north Maharashtra) and Jalna (central Maharashtra) will have the dry run on Saturday.

Maharashtra reported 3,524 new cases on Friday, taking the tally to 1,935,636, while the toll reached 49,580, with 59 new casualties. Mumbai clocked 631 cases on Friday, taking the case count to 2,94,067. The city has 8,943 active cases. Nine deaths took the city’s toll to 11,125.

Until Friday, 67 United Kingdom (UK) returnees have tested positive for Covid-19, however, it is yet to be confirmed if any of them carry the new, more transmissible strain of Covid-19.

“In each district, the dry run will be conducted at three health centres and 25 health workers have been selected for the shots. Each centre will have a team of five, with one vaccinator and four supporting staff for identification, maintenance of protocols and making entries on Co-WIN mobile app prepared by the ministry of health and family welfare. The team will also observe (during actual vaccination) Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) protocol to check if the participant shows any health complications or side effects post vaccination,” said Dr Archana Patil, director of health services.

They will also run a test on the toll-free number, 104, where people appointed at any of the vaccination centres can call and inform about a difficulty or emergency situation for support. Each centre will have officials from the state health department, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to oversee the mock drill, she added.

The health centres have been equipped with a waiting room, vaccination room and observation room, apart from facilities such as electricity connection, internet connectivity and security arrangements, the officials said.

After conducting a dry run of vaccination in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat on December 28 and 29, the Centre has decided to extend the drill to rest of the country on January 2.

In the dry run, the entire process of transporting the vaccines from storage to the site, administering them to candidates, feeding data on Co-WIN app is practised without any real vaccine.

The state government has made preparations to administer a vaccine to around 3.25 crore people, which will be completed in three phases. Vaccine shots will be given to health workers, frontline workers and citizens above the age of 50 years and having co-morbidities.

“We have trained 16,000 vaccinators who will give vaccine shots to the people. To preserve vaccines, cold storages are ready and the state administration is fully prepared. We are waiting for the Centre’s nod for the vaccination drive,” the health minister said

Maharashtra has reported fewer than 5,000 cases for the past 28 straight days, although the state authorities have expressed fear of a spike in the first week of January in view of the crowding during Christmas and new year celebrations.

The state completed a total of 1,28,23,834 Covid tests with 76,201 tests conducted on Friday. The positivity rate for the day has declined to 4.62% against the overall positivity rate of the state stood at 15.09%.

“A total of 4,471 UK returnees who had landed between November 15 and December 23 have been traced till date. RT-PCR tests have been conducted on 3,273 of them, and 67 samples were found positive. Of them, 29 are from Mumbai, Pune (13), Thane (7), Nagpur (8), 2 each from Nashik, Aurangabad, Raigad, Buldhana and one each from Nanded and Washim,” said state surveillance office Dr Pradip Awate.

He said that 61 samples have been referred to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune to ascertain if they are infected with the new variant. The state has also traced 422 people who have come in contact with the UK returnees and 26 of them have tested positive for Covid-19, he added.