COVID-19 vaccination: Dry run starts today in four Indian states 

The dummy run will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Assam on Dec 28 and 29.

The process is taking place ahead of the mass immunisation programme which the centre is expected to conduct in the upcoming days to fight the virus that has hit India hard since March.

" As a step to prep up for administration of COVID-19 vaccine, and to assess the readiness of the planned activities, a dry run has been planned in four states to start with, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab considering the geographical locations. Each State will plan it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings e.g. district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc," read a government statement.

"This will exercise enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment, the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process. This will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels," the statement said.

"This two-day activity is planned on 28th & 29th December 2020, and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt & allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting. This will also  include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper physical distancing," it said.

 "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 site, to prevent disease transmission. The mock drill will include concurrent monitoring and review at the block and district levels, and preparation of feedback to be shared with the State and Union Health Ministry," the statement said.

Meanwhile, India has been witnessing a fall in the daily COVID-19 case count.

Daily new caseload dropped below 19,000 after 6 months.

"18,732 were added to the national tally in the last 24 hours. The new added cases were 18,653 on 1st July, 2020," read the statement.

India’s total Active Caseload has fallen to 2.78 lakh (2,78,690) today. This is the lowest after 170 days. The total active cases were 2,76,682 on 10th July, 2020.

The country has reported a trend of sustained decrease in the number of active cases. India’s present active caseload consists of just 2.74% of India’s Total Positive Cases.

21,430 cases recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours. This has led to a net decline of 2,977 from the total active caseload.

The total recovered cases stand at 97,61,538. The gap between Recovered Cases and Active Cases, that is steadily increasing, is nearing 95 lakhs and presently stands at 94,82,848.

The difference in the New Recoveries outnumbering New Cases has also improved the Recovery Rate to 95.82% today. This difference is continuously growing as the recoveries outpace the daily new cases.

72.37% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs.

Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 3,782 newly recovered cases.

1,861 people recovered in West Bengal followed by 1,764 in Chhattisgarh.

279 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Ten States/UTs account for 75.27% of new deaths.

Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (60). West Bengal and Delhi follow with 33 and 23 daily deaths, respectively.