OUR CORRESPONDENT
TEZPUR: A two-day dry run for COVID-19 vaccination programme concluded successfully in Sonitpur district on Tuesday. The exercise was conducted in a total of five health institutions – Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, Dhekiajuli Community Health Centre, Tezpur Urban Health Centre, Times Hospital and No. 2 Rongaghora HWC which falls under Dhekiajuli BPHC.
The dry-run or drill was conducted to test the available infrastructure in place and assess and identify challenges if any in the entire chain of events right from vaccine storage to transportation of the vaccine till uploading of data into the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) app following vaccination to crowd management at the health centres ensuring all COVID-19 protocol such as wearing of masks, social distancing and handwashing.
A total of 125 dummy beneficiaries, mainly frontline health workers such as doctors, nurses, lab technicians, ASHA/Anganwadi workers, with 25 beneficiaries against each of the five health institutions were pre-identified for the dry run. The exercise was simultaneously carried out in all the five health centres on Tuesday. Preliminary preparations and training was conducted for all vaccination officers, health workers and others involved in the exercise on Monday.
Focus was given on adverse event following immunization (AEFI) with a separate room made available for observation of the dummy patients after receiving the dummy vaccine. Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh on Wednesday visited the dry run venue at Tezpur Urban Health Centre at Jahajghat, Tezpur to oversee the entire process. Later in the evening he also chaired the District Task Force meeting for the COVID-19 vaccine dry run to review the two-day long exercise in presence of an observer.
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