New Delhi: Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced on Tuesday that the dry run for the Covid-19 vaccine has been successfully conducted in states of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat. ALSO READ | Covid-19 Vaccine: After Russia, Belarus First Country To Vaccinate people Sputnik V


"The dry run for Covid-19 vaccination successfully conducted in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat on 28th and 29th December 2020,": Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare stated.

The drill has been conducted in order to assess the preparedness of the mechanism laid out for the mass vaccination program against the Covid-19 disease, eight districts in four states of Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat were chosen for a trial run.

According to the Health Ministry, each state had to plan the dry run in two districts and preferably in different session type settings, for example, district hospital, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach, etc.

"This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilization and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process and check the usage of Co-WIN in a field environment," the ministry had stated earlier.

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What is Dry Run?

A dry run is a mock drill that helps in staging the complete session of the upcoming massive Covid-19 vaccination drive. The dry run includes the enlisting of the beneficiaries through the Co-Win mobile application, staging a complete vaccination session following the prescribed protocol, and testing of cold storage and transportation management.

The trial run also enables linkages between planning, implementation, and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation, including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process.

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