Ranchi/Koderma/Chatra: The second dry
run for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive was concluded successfully across 188 community healthcare centres (CHCs) in the state on Friday. The exercise was aimed at checking the preparedness of health workers in handling the Covid vaccines as well as the functioning of the Co-WIN application.
The second
dry run was organised on the directions of Union health minister Harsh Vardhan who had held meetings with health ministers of various states and Union territories on Thursday.
Talking to TOI, state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said: “The idea behind conducting a second dry run is to familiarise district and block-level officials with the process of handling Covid-19 vaccines. The drill will also help them in getting familiarised with the Co-WIN digital platform.”
Notably, during the first dry run in the state, a total of 13 sites across six districts were selected wherein around 325 healthcare workers had participated. However, the number of centres was much higher during the second drill.
The nodal officer for the dry run in the state, Dr Ajit Prasad, said: “More than 5,000 persons were engaged in the exercise on Friday. The drive was a success as barring a few centres where technical glitches were experienced, we were able to organise it in a smooth manner.”
Prasad added that the second dry run helped the administration in clearing doubts about the vaccination programme among people.
In Koderma, the dry run was held at five sites. As part of the drive, 25 health workers received a placebo in the district. Deputy commissioner Ramesh Gholap, who took stock of the dry run at the sadar hospital, said the administration was fully prepared for the roll-out of the vaccines.
“Our warehouses can store 2.57 lakh doses of the vaccines, while five cold chain points have also been readied for the purpose,” Gholap said.
In Chatra, health officials said they have identified seven storage centres. Civil surgeon Dr Arun Kumar Paswan said: “As many as 3,480 health workers will be inoculated in the first phase.”
The seven centres in Chatra where the dry run was conducted were Chatra sadar hospital and Simaria referral hospital, apart from CHCs in Itkhori, Huntergunj, Kunda, Tandwa and Pratappur.
Health officials said in the first phase, health workers including doctors, nurses and multi-purpose workers, among others, will be inoculated. Before the vaccines are administered, the identity of each and every beneficiary would be matched from the online portal, Paswan said. He added that in subsequent phases, booths will be set up at the panchayat level for the vaccination drive.