Another dry run for COVID vaccination roll-out in Delhi; AIIMS, Safdarjung among sites

The authorities will on Friday conduct the second dry run for the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi that will span across at least three districts of the national capital, officials said.These districts are South Delhi, South East Delhi and North West Delhi, they said.The first dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was held in Delhi on January 2 for which three sites were chosen across the city.Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had reviewed the exercise at a dispensary in Daryaganj and said the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to people in the national capital for free once it arrives.

The authorities will on Friday conduct the second dry run for the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi that will span across at least three districts of the national capital, officials said.

These districts are South Delhi, South East Delhi and North West Delhi, they said.

The first dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was held in Delhi on January 2 for which three sites were chosen across the city.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had reviewed the exercise at a dispensary in Daryaganj and said the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to people in the national capital for free once it arrives. He had asserted that the city government has made all preparations for the vaccination drive.

The three sites for the drill held on January 2 were — GTB Hospital Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj, and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.

Officials on Thursday said in South Delhi district ten vaccination centres have been chosen for the dry run. They include AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya Hospital and Pushpwati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI) Hospital.

In South East district, 19 sites have been chosen across three sub-divisions.

These sites include Batra Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Escorts Hospital, National Heart Institute, Holy Family Hospital, Apollo Hospital and MCW Gautampuri.

In North West District, the 12 sites chosen for the exercise include Max Hospital and Fortis Hospital, both at Shalimar Bagh; Saroj Hospital, Jaipur Golden Hospital, and BSA Hospital, officials said.

India's drugs regulator has approved Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.

It paves the way for the roll out of at least two vaccines in the country in the coming days.

A total of 1,000 vaccination centres will be set up in Delhi. About 600 centres will be set up in the first phase for which work is underway in full swing.

At every vaccination centre there will be multiple booths, each to take a maximum of 100 people, officials said on Wednesday.

There will be a nodal officer at each vaccination centre, officials said.

COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network or CoWIN app and its ecosystem will be used to manage and scale up the massive vaccination drive that is expected to begin soon across the country.

Everything will be fed to the database in real-time. Also, an individual after being vaccinated will be kept under observation for some time for any AEFI (adverse events following immunisation).

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had on Saturday said the city government had so far made preparations to vaccinate one lakh people in a day. The Delhi government is fully prepared to receive, store and administer COVID-19 vaccine to 51 lakh priority category persons in the city in the first phase of vaccination, the minister had said.

These include healthcare workers who will be the first to receive the vaccination, followed by frontline workers, people aged above 50 years and those below 50 years who have co-morbidities, he added.

Vaccination centres will either be hospitals or facilities linked to hospitals.

During the first phase, about three lakh healthcare workers and nearly six lakh frontline workers, totalling about nine lakh, will be the first ones to get the vaccine.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)