New Delhi, Dec 31 (UNI) The Centre on Thursday asked all states and Union Territories (UTs) to ensure effective preparedness for the vaccine roll out.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting today to review the

preparedness at session sites for COVID-19 vaccination with Pr. Secretaries (Health), NHM MDs and other health administrators of all States/UTs through video conference.

The dry run will be conducted by all the State and UT governments on January 2, 2021 (Saturday), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement here.

The activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least 3 session sites; some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain/have poor logistical support; Maharashtra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities other than their capital.

The objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to assess operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application in field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation. This is also expected to give confidence to programme managers at various levels.

The planning for the vaccine introduction will be as per the Operational Guidelines issued by the

Ministry on December 20.

For each of the three session sites, the concerned Medical Officer In-charge will identify 25 test

beneficiaries (healthcare workers). The states/UTs have been asked to ensure that the data of these beneficiaries is uploaded in Co-WIN.

These beneficiaries will also be available at the session site for the dry run. The states and UTs will prepare the facilities and users to be created on CoWIN application including uploading the data of Health Care Worker (HCW) beneficiaries.