Covid vaccination dry run in Karnataka districts, taluks, PHCs

January 1, 2021

Karnataka will conduct vaccination dry runs at three sites each in five districts — Bengaluru (BBMP limits), Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Mysuru and Belagavi — on January 2.
Dr Rajani Nageshrao, Deputy Director, Immunisation, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said, “The dry run will be held in five districts for a full day at the district hospital, taluk hospital and primary health centre levels.”
Everything that is needed to conduct Covid-19 vaccination, excluding the vaccine itself and the vaccination procedure, will be part of the dry run in the state, she said.
The aim of the exercise is to understand how the actual vaccination and all related events must take place in accordance with set procedures.

Three rooms, waiting area, syringes, people to be vaccinated (health care workers), vaccinators who will administer the vaccine, AEFI (adverse event following immunization) kit — which is generally kept during all immunisation programmes — and observation room will be kept ready. The orientation will take place on Friday,” Dr Rajani added.
The health care workers, who are beneficiaries, will receive a message asking them to come for the vaccination along with their ID proof.
Their names will be recorded in the computer, a person deputed for mock vaccination will carry out mock procedure of vaccination and the person who has been ‘vaccinated’ will be made to sit in the observation room for half an hour.
The procedures will be similar to those which will be followed at the time of actual vaccination. A dummy app has also been made ready for this purpose.

In Kalaburagi, the dry run will be taken up in Ashoknagar Urban PHC, Aurad Rural PHC and Jewargi Taluk hospital, sources said. After the dry run is over, the challenges and difficulties faced, especially at the PHC level, will be highlighted, corrected and feedback shared with the Central Government. The challenges that crop up are expected to hold good for the whole state.
Another dry run is not planned yet. Around 75-100 vaccinators and 375 beneficiaries are expected to be part of the dry run in Karnataka.
The Health department, in a press release, stated that the dry run will be an exercise for end-to end-testing of Covid vaccination process, except the actual vaccination, and will include planning, preparation including pre-requisites for vaccine introduction as per the operational guidelines and use of CoWIN portal, uploading beneficiary and session site details, verification of documents at session sites, mock drill of beneficiary vaccination and reporting.
Some of the primary objectives include assessing the operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in field environment and to test linkages between planning implementation and reporting mechanisms.