To assess the State’s preparedness at all levels before the actual rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine for 6,35,986 registered healthcare workers in the first phase, another dry run will be conducted in all districts on Friday.
The first dry run on January 2 was held in 16 centres of five districts, including Bengaluru Urban. Apart from some minor software glitches observed during beneficiary verification in the Co-Win portal and issues related to space, the first dry run was successful.
For the second dry run, five different types of hospitals will be identified as vaccine session sites in every district – District, Medical College hospital (government and private), Urban PHC, Rural PHC, Taluk hospital, Community Health Centre (CHC), and a private hospital where more than 100 healthcare workers have enrolled as beneficiaries.
As many as 25 beneficiaries will be covered at every vaccine session site in the second run too. The Union Health Minister is holding a meeting with Health Ministers of all States on January 7 in this regard.
Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), said that the second dry run would look at the feasibility of all types of session sites. The design of the waiting room, vaccination room and observation room; the entry points; availability of space and time taken to cover the scheduled beneficiaries will be checked.
While a total of 6,35,986 healthcare workers have been enrolled on the Co-Win application as on January 6, as many as 9,807 trained vaccinators and 28,427 vaccine sites are ready for the drive. The State has so far received 64 ice-lined refrigerators and 24 lakh syringes. These have been dispatched to the districts. An additional 31 lakh syringes will soon be provided by the Centre.
Cold storage
The State has around 2,855 cold chain points for storage and distribution of vaccines apart from 10 walk-in coolers and four walk-in freezers. Karnataka is expecting additional three walk-in coolers and two walk-in freezers from the Centre.
Besides, the existing spare cold storage facilities under the Animal Husbandry Department and private hospitals, especially hospital chains, are also being assessed.
