As India readies for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, the union health ministry has been pro-actively involved in the preparations for this roll-out.

Over the past couple of months, the ministry has closely associated with the UTs, states and other stakeholders to ensure that the preparations for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine are on track.

In a massive nation-wide exercise on January 2, 2020, an end-to-end mock drill on the vaccine administration was conducted in all the states and UTs.

The drill was administered at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts and each district conducted the dry run at three sites or more which included a public health facility.

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All the state & district officials were trained on the Operational Guidelines and for conducting the dry-run.

This dry run was aimed at testing the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in the health system and to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment for planning, implementation and reporting at the block, district and state level.

The dry run was also conducted to familiarize the state, district, block and hospital level officers on all aspects of COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The dry run from was conducted from 9:00 am across the country in a seamless manner.

The activities starting from beneficiary data upload, session site allocation & micro-planning, vaccine allocation, session site management with test beneficiaries, reporting mechanism etc. were covered in this one-day dry run to execute the nearest possible simulation of the actual day.

The preparation to handle any Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) at all session sites and functionality of the Call Centers was also tested.

The dry-run was supervised by the district collectors and the dry-run ended with debriefing meetings at the district and the state level to discuss the issues and challenges encountered during the day.

The cold chain infrastructure is sufficient to ensure last-mile delivery of COVID-19 vaccine in a temperature-controlled environment across the country.

Sufficient supplies of syringes and other logistics have also been ensured to begin COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Around 1,14,100 vaccinators have been trained on the process to be followed at the vaccination sites which includes beneficiary verification, vaccination, cold chain & logistics management, Bio-Medical Waste management, AEFI management and uploading the information on Co-WIN software.

The entire operational planning and IT platform have been field-tested in four states which include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Gujarat on December 28 and December 29, 2020, and on the basis of feedback received, minor enhancements have been made in the IT system.