Finance
By: Shree1news, 25 DEC 2020
To organize for a COVID-19 inoculation drive that would begin quickly in India, the government has planned a dry-run of the vaccination process in 4 states – Punjab, Gujarat, Assam and Andhra Pradesh – on December 28 and 29.
Two districts in each of those states throughout the country’s four zones will verify their preparedness in five types of medical settings – district hospitals, Community and Public Healthcare Centres, urban and rural areas, and private facilities.
Importantly, the dry run will give attention to administration of any possible adverse events following immunisation, besides conducting mock drills, checking utilization of the Co-WIN vaccine registration app, storage and transport preparedness, and crowd management.
As well as, infection control practices shall be followed on the site to prevent disease transmission.
“It will provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks so that those could be addressed before the commencement of the COVID-19 drive. The dry run is to be carried out in one or two districts under the overall leadership of the district collector/magistrate,” Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu mentioned on Thursday.
As a part of vaccine roll-out plan, 2,360 training classes have been held thus far and 7,000 officials have been skilled, together with medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, and coordinators of accredited social health activists (ASHA).
India may start vaccinating “in any week” of January, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had recently mentioned, including that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is analysing emergency-use approval requests by Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute and Pfizer.
The Delhi and Hyderbabad airports have started prepping to safely store and transport the temperature-sensitive vaccines. The states have also collated a list of healthcare and frontline workers who would be the first to get the jab.
After three crore healthcare and frontline workers, India expects to vaccinate 27 crore individuals within the high-risk and vulnerable categories for COVID-19 over next six to seven months, the minister had mentioned.
India – the second nation worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic by way of absolute numbers – has been seeing a steady decline in its fresh Covid infections amid an increase in cases across Europe, Americas and some African countries.
The nation has more than 1.1 crore cases of which only three per cent are active. Up to now, a minimum of 1.46 lakh people have lost their lives to COVID-19 for the reason that first cases was detected in India in January this year.
Source:A-N
