Health minister chairs meet ahead of COVID vaccine dry run, says 'have made improvements'

Ahead of the January 8 nationwide vaccine dry run, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired a meeting with the health ministers of states and Union Territories on Thursday. In his interaction, Harsh Vardhan said that the Centre has reviewed the feedback on the dry run of Covid-19 vaccine in 4 states and the government has made improvement based on that. He announced that Friday's dry run will be done in 33 states and union territories.

'Seamless last-mile delivery of the vaccine'

Noting that India's is doing well in its fight against COVID-19, the Health Minister said that people should not forget to follow the COVID-19 norms. "Maharashtra, Kerala and Chhattisgarh have seen a sudden spike in Coronavirus cases recently. This gives us a warning that we shouldn't forget precautions and continue our fight against COVID-19," Harsh Vardhan said.

Harsh Vardhan said that multiple vaccines are being developed in India under different levels. "Scientists across India are working on as many as 30 vaccine candidates. From these, seven of them are in advances phases of clinical and pre-clinical trials. And two of our vaccines have been cleared for emergency use," the Health Minister said.

"COVID-19 vaccines Covishield and Covaxin are on the verge of being available in the country. Our efforts are to ensure seamless last-mile delivery of the vaccine," he said. The Union Minister also hailed the efforts of India's COVID front line workers and scientists who have worked hard during the pandemic. 

COVID vaccination dry run on January 8

Each district will identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run conducted on January 2, including a public health facility (district hospital/medical college), private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

"The vaccine dry run will be conducted on January 8 in all districts across India, except for UP and Haryana. COVID-19 vaccine dry run has already been conducted in all districts in UP on January 5 and Haryana is conducting in all its districts tomorrow (Thursday)," an official source told PTI.

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The country's drugs regulator on Sunday approved Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country. "The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future. This milestone entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country," the ministry said.

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In a massive nation-wide exercise on January 2, an end-to-end mock drill on COVID-19 vaccine administration was conducted in all states and UTs at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts. More than 75 lakh beneficiaries have been registered till date on the Co-WIN software, the ministry had said earlier.

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The entire operational planning and IT platform has been field-tested in four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Gujarat -- on December 28 and 29 and on the basis of the feedback received minor enhancements have been made in the IT system, it had said.

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(With agency inputs)