New Delhi: In a major development the central government on Thursday has decided to conduct a nationwide dry run of Covid-19 vaccine from January 2 even as India's apex drug regulator, DCGI, is likely to take a final call over giving Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) of the vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Pfizer on Friday.
The decision to conduct dry run was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan following the success of previous dry run that was conducted in four states.
The Government has asked all states and UTs to ensure effective preparedness for the vaccine rollout. Bhushan reviewed the entire rollout scenario with state principal secretary (Health), NHM MDs, and other officials of state and central government through video conferencing.
Officials in the Health Ministry said that the dry run activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least three-session sites. Some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain.
Maharastra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities other than their capitals.
The dry run will assess the operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application in the field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide the way forward, prior to actual implementation.
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Significantly, for each of the three-session sites, the concerned medical officer-in-charge will identify 25 test beneficiaries (Health care workers). The states and UTs have also been asked to ensure that the data of these beneficiaries is uploaded in Co-WIN.
The states and UTs have been asked to ensure physical verification of all proposed sites for adequacy of space, logistical arrangements, internet connectivity, electricity, safety etc.
More than 96,000 vaccinators have been trained for this purpose. 2,360 participants have been trained in national training of trainers, and over 57,000 participants have been trained in district level training in 719 districts.
"An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunisation (AEFI)...in addition, adherence and management of infection control practices at the session sites, to prevent disease transmission," officials said.
States and UTs have also been asked to set up task forces to review the dry run.
Earlier, the Health Ministry conducted two day long dry run in four states including Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab on December 28-29 in two districts each.
"All states expressed confidence in the operational guidelines and IT platform for large scale programme implementation," officials said.
Meanwhile, referring to the Covid-19 vaccine in India, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr VG Somani said that the country will have a new year with something in hand. He was addressing a webinar on vaccine development in India.
The drug regulator will sit with the representatives of three Pharma giants on Friday over giving EUA to their Covid-19 vaccine candidates.
Somani, however, said, "There is a challenge in the sense that people may not be inclined to participate in a trial once a vaccine is available under emergency use. However, this won't be a problem till the next 3-4 months."
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Participating in the webinar, Umesh Shaligram, Director (R&D) of Serum Institute of India said that his company has a stockpile of 75 million doses of the Oxford vaccine and by the 1st week of January will have 100 million doses. "India is the only country that has such a huge stockpile," said Shaligram.
Referring to the Covid-19 variant, Renu Swarup, secretary in the department of biotechnology said that in 4,000 to 5,000 samples we have sequenced so far, "we have not found an Indian variant."
Echoing the view, renowned virologist Shahid Jameel further said that minor mutations will not affect vaccine efficacy.
It may be mentioned here that a new SARS-CoV-2 mutation in the UK has created a widespread concern across the globe.
