A dry run to check the best way to vaccinate people against COVID-19 ahead of the actual vaccination drive has begun in Tamil Nadu. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan was present at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Saturday morning to kick off the exercise.

Twenty five health workers will receive dummy vaccines at each spot. It is meant to test the mechanisms and reveal possible gaps in the system ahead of the actual vaccination drive. "An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunization," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The dry run will be carried out across all capital and other major cities today. This massive exercise comes a day after a panel of government-appointed experts recommended approval for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, to the regulator Drugs Control Authority of India. 

Today's exercise is the second dry run being conducted in the country - the first was on December 28 and 29 in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat.

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