JAIPUR: While intensifying the battle against Covid-19,
vaccines are emerging as a ‘shot of hope’ with the beginning of the New Year. Having worked tirelessly last year for containing the spread of the virus, the health department officials were seen busy on the first day of the year preparing for the dry run of Covid-19 vaccine.
In the dry run, the entire process of Covid-19 vaccination will be followed and completed, but without any real vaccination. The whole process will be carried out with an objective of assessing planning and preparedness for the vaccination as per guidelines and end-to-end testing of Co-Win, a software launched by the Centre for Covid-19 vaccination.
The vaccination sites will have separate entry and exit points and will have to ensure physical distance in seating arrangements of beneficiaries. The health department has made arrangements for anaphylaxis kit in case of adverse events following immunization.
In the dry run, the staff will learn all aspects of Covid-19 vaccination as per the guidelines issued by the Centre.
The health department has identified 19 places in seven districts, adding Ajmer to the existing list of six districts, for vaccination. "These 19 places are situated in seven districts including
Bhilwara, Jaipur, Karauli, Ajmer,
Banswara, Jodhpur and Bikaner," said a senior health department official.
In Jaipur, four places have been identified for the dry run including Manipal Hospital, J K Lon Hospital, rural PHC Achrol and Urban Mother and
Child Welfare Centre in Bani Park. "The dry run will be carried out on 25 people at each site. It is aimed at checking the system including online software, coordination of officials, infrastructure and other processes working smoothly. The names of 25 people have already been fed in the online software. They will come to the vaccination site and show the message they received about the time and date for vaccination. There will be three separate rooms, a waiting room, a vaccination room and third is an observation room. The person will come first to the waiting room, when his turn for vaccination comes, he will be called to the vaccination room where he will not be vaccinated for real but the vaccinator will complete the process. Then the person will go to the observation room, where he will be made to sit for 30 minutes for observation," said Dr
Narrottam Sharma, chief medical health officer, Jaipur.
In the dry run, the health department will assess the operational feasibility in the use of Co-Win application in the field environment, test linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanism, identifying challenges and guiding the way forward prior to actual implementation and providing confidence to programme managers at various levels.