Gearing up for roll out of COVID vaccine; Dry run in 4 states

New Delhi, December 25: Viewing to strengthen the capacity of human resource for COVID-19 vaccine, the Central Government is all gearing up for the roll out across the country with vaccine administrators playing an important role in the training process. "Detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels", the statement read.

 

The training includes all operational aspects of training like organization of vaccination sessions, use of Co-WIN IT platform for management of the entire vaccination process, deployment of HR Cold chain preparedness, Management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste management, infection prevention protocols.

 

This is after 2,360 participants were trained during national level training of trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officersand more. As on date, the state level trainings had been completed in all states with participation of more than 7000 district level trainees, the statement added further. As a step to prep up for administration of COVID-19 vaccine, and to assess the readiness of the planned activities, the government has also planned a dry run in four states to start with Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab. This is to enable end to end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process.

 

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research has said that the Indian vaccine against COVID-19, Covaxin, has drawn global attention. In a tweet, the ICMR said, "India's indigenous vaccine against COVID19 Covaxin-a product of ICMR-Bharat Biotech collaboration, achieves remarkable feat. Data generated from within India underlines impressive safety and immunogenicity profile of Covaxin and sparks Lancet's interest in publishing them."