The Centre on Saturday morning began a dry run in all states to assess the readiness for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out programme, with ...
The Centre on Saturday morning began a dry run in all states to assess the readiness for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out programme, with health authorities checking everything – from their technology platforms to the storage infrastructure – that will be required to inoculate millions.
The massive exercise came a day after a government-appointed panel of experts held a meeting to review the applications of vaccine candidates. Reports suggested that the Subject Expert Committee approved Serum Institute of India’s Covishield for emergency use in the country, though there had been no official confirmation. The Pune-based firm is the local maker of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca.
The drug regulator is also considering similar approvals for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and another developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
Saturday’s exercise includes necessary data entry into Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring vaccine delivery, along with testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for Covid-19 vaccine and management of crowds at session sites with proper physical distancing, the health ministry had said.
An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunisation.
During the exercise, 25 beneficiaries – all health care workers – present at each site will receive dummy vaccines, according to NDTV....
