Uttar Pradesh: Six sites selected for dry run of Covid-19 vaccine in Prayagraj

PRAYAGRAJ: Six sites, including three each in urban and rural pockets across the Prayagraj district, have been selected for conducting a dry run for Covid-19 vaccination. The dry run activity is set to be conducted by district health authorities on January 5 ( Tuesday) to test the linkages between planning and implementation and identifying the challenges.
Deputy chief medical officer and nodal officer, Dr Rahul Singh told TOI, “Three sites in the city including MLN Medical college, Colvin Hospital and Jeevan Jyoti Hospital and three sites in rural including CHC ( Community Health Centre) Kotwa AT Bani, CHC Jasra and CHC Pratappur are the sites in the district which have been selected for the dry run on Tuesday to gear roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine in the Prayagraj district.”
He further added, “A team of seven members comprising medical and paramedical staff has been assigned specific duties at each site for the dry run, and the site has also been divided into three specific rooms including sitting area\waiting lounge, vaccination room and observation room."
For the dry run activity, users ids will be created by district administrators a day prior to the dry run.The district administrators will create the same for the vaccination teams. The concerned medical officer-in-charge will identify 25 test beneficiaries ( health workers) at each site for the dry run. The data of these identified test beneficiaries will be uploaded on the Co-WIN test link by the district administrator.
The primary objective of the dry run is to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in the field environment, to test linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanism, to identify challenges and guide the way forward before actual implementation. It is to provide confidence to the programme managers at various levels, said Dr Singh.
“Health staff assigned for duties have been briefed about the guidelines which includes creation of facilities & users on Co-WIN application (an electronic application) , session site creation and mapping of sites, beneficiary data upload on Co-WIN , receipt of the vaccines by the district and vaccine allocation using Co-WIN, session planning, vaccinator deployment, deployment of team members, vaccine and logistics mobilization at session site, mock drill of beneficiary vaccination and reporting, and review meet to receive feedback” said nodal officer.
Dr Singh, meanwhile, said, “From installing freezers to setting up cold chain equipment, arrangements are being made at a government hospital here for storing the vaccine, whenever it arrives”.
He said that the health department is fully prepared to receive, store and administer Covid-19 vaccine to around 26,000 priority category persons (medical and paramedical staff) in the city in the first phase of vaccination.