Covid vaccine dry run at Urban primary health centre, Tilak nagar , Hyderabad. Photo: Surya Sridhar
Hyderabad: Telangana on Saturday took the initial steps towards preparing the ground for mass administration of the Covid-19 vaccine with a dry run in seven places in the State.
The dry run, more of a drill, was aimed at identifying potential issues during the actual rollout of the vaccine and was conducted in Gandhi Hospital and two primary healthcare centres at Nampally and Tilaknagar apart from Yashoda Hospitals in Somajiguda in the capital. The rehearsal was also done in three centres in Mahabubnagar district, with the Primary Health Centre at Janampet, Government General Hospital and Neha Sunshine Hospital being selected for the purpose.
Health Minister Eatala Rajender said the Centre had indicated on providing five lakh doses in the first leg and 10 lakh doses in the second. This would be followed by one crore doses, he said, reiterating that the first priority for the shots would be for healthcare workers, followed by frontline workers and those who are at risk of exposure, especially from departments, including Home (police personnel) and local bodies. The poor and those with comorbidities were likely to be considered next.
The dry run, which also saw the testing of the Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CO-WIN) software, had trained vaccinators who conducted the mock administration of the vaccine to healthcare workers in urban primary healthcare facilities. On an average, each healthcare facility administered 20 to 35 frontline workers with the ‘vaccine’ on Saturday.