Dry run of corona vaccination in Patiala tomorrow

The Punjab Government is now going to conduct a dry run of corona vaccination at district Patiala on 2 and 3 January, 2021.

Giving details in press communique, the Health Minister Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu said that as per the guidelines of GoI, Punjab has selected the district Patiala where the dry run to be conducted at 3 sites namely Govt. Medical College Patiala, Sadhbhavna Hospital (Private Facility) and CHC Shatrana (Outreach session). The UNDP and the WHO shall be supporting in the conduct of the dry run.

Dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system which will provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the COVID-19 drive. The test link of Co-WIN (www.uat.co-vin.in) has been made ready for the dry run, he said.

Divulging about the features of vaccination program, Mr. Sidhu said that Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is conducting nationwide multiple wide-age range injectable vaccination campaigns such as measles-rubella (MR) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) campaign (carried out in 35 endemic districts). However, for the first time programme will vaccinate pre-identified beneficiaries from specified groups supported by Co-WIN, an electronic application. The dry run will exercise end to end testing COVID-19 vaccination process and will include various exercises such as Planning & preparations including prerequisites for the vaccine introduction as per the Operational Guidelines Creation of Facilities & Users on COWIN application.

The Health Minister further said that the primary objective of dry run would assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in field environment and would test linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms to identify challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation. It would also provide confidence to programme managers at various levels.