Union health minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with health ministers of states and Union territories a day before the nationwide Covid-19 vaccine dry run. Vardhan asked the state authorities to be prepared and stop misinformation campaign.
The second round of dry run will take place on January 8 across all districts of the country, except in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In a statement, the Union health ministry said that each district across the country has been asked to identify three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run including a public health facility (District Hospital/Medical College), private health facility, and rural or urban outreach sites. The first nationwide dry run of the vaccination drive took place at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts in the country on January 2. It was conducted to familiarise the state, district, block, and hospital-level officers on all aspects of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. The dry run is aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for inoculation programme and to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment for planning, implementation, and reporting at the block, district, and state level. Co-WIN has been developed by the health ministry for real time information on vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries for the coronavirus vaccine.
