Ghaziabad, Noida to conduct dry run for Covid vaccine on January 5

Ghaziabad: As part of the nation-wide drive to check readiness of its protocols to administer the Covid-19 vaccine when it arrives, both Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh

Ghaziabad: As part of the nation-wide drive to check readiness of its protocols to administer the Covid-19 vaccine when it arrives, both Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar will conduct their dry runs on January 5 as will the rest of the state.

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The national health mission (NHM) director in Uttar Pradesh told all districts’ chief medical officers to report their feedback on the same day.

During the drill, all steps will be tested and assessed to find and fix any gaps in the process or report any difficulty.

Aparna Upadhaya, NHM director (UP), directed that the dry run be conducted at six sites in each district, which will include three each in rural and urban centres. These centres could be hospitals, schools or other private and government institutions.

Gautam Buddh Nagar has 73 sites and its district magistrate (DM) Suhas LY said they may test more than six sites.

“We are yet to decide upon the number of sites where we will test our preparedness. We may take up the dry run at all the centres so that we may understand the actual preparedness of our staff and infrastructure,” he said.

The district has come up with 13 cold storage points for the vaccine, besides a main vaccine depot. A list of about 21,543 doctors and medical staff who will be inoculated in the first phase has also been drawn up.

Similarly, Ghaziabad has also identified about 44 sites, including 30 private healthcare facilities. It has drawn up a list of about 21,800 health care workers.

“During the dry run, about 36 staff will be roped in. We have identified 29 cold chain points and one depot. We will be co-ordinating the activities from the Covid control and command centre and will identify gaps for improvement,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer. “During the dry run, our teams will carry vaccine boxes (with ice packs) to the vaccination facility. So, they will get attuned to the process when actual vaccine arrives.”

The Uttar Pradesh government has already issued guidelines for Covid-19 vaccination and identified three categories of people who would be vaccinated in first, second and third phases.

In his directions, UP’s additional chief secretary has stated that the health care workers (HCWs) which includes staff of government and private health care facilities, will get the vaccine in the first phase. The second phase is scheduled for frontline workers such as police personnel, home guards, jail staff and employees of Nagar Palikas, among others.

The third category includes people aged over 50 years and also those aged below but having issues like diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure, will get the shots.