The Tamil Nadu health department completed 25 dummy vaccinations across the state in two hours during the dry run for the administering COVID-19 vaccine on healthcare workers on Saturday.

The exercise began at 17 sites in five districts — three sites each in Chennai, Thiruvallur, The Nilgiris and Tirunelveli, and five sites in Coimbatore. 

Health secretary J Radhakrishnan inspected the dry run at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Saturday morning. The vaccination dry run began on healthcare workers, keeping up with safety protocols, including wearing of masks and social distancing at the hospital.

The specific stages of the vaccination programme, the vaccination network throughout the State, human resources, internet connectivity and facilities within the observation room was examined and analysed by the state health department officials.

Volunteers verified the identity cards of the healthcare workers at the vaccination site and noted their details. They were then sent to the vaccination room for administration of the vaccine. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan said that no vaccine is being given to the workers and the functioning of the app is being checked. A separate app has been developed to confirm the details of those receiving the vaccine.

After the administration of the vaccine, the healthcare workers were sent an SMS on completion of the process. It included information on the CoWIN app and schedule of the booster shot of the vaccine will be informed. More than 2,000 healthcare workers took part in the dry run.