New Delhi: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan stressed on co-ordination and mutual understanding for the upcoming vaccination drive.
The Union Minister on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at session sites across the country for coronavirus vaccination trial run on January 2.
Requesting every official to ensure that the vaccination sites and official in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and SOP for vaccination that has been prepared by the Union Health Ministry and shared with the States/UTs to guide them in the dry run, Dr Harsh Vardhan pressed the need for perfect calibration between the administrative and medical officers to make the event a grand success.
Drawing from the Pulse Polio drive of 1994 in Delhi, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that as the exercise of vaccination is so integrally based on interaction and involvement of people, the relevant stakeholders, NGOs, Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and others need to be mobilised.
He also stressed on the need for adequate security arrangements at session sites, cold chain points and during vaccine transportation.
The officers responded that the designated team have been adequately trained for the purpose and that they will be personally monitoring each and every aspect of the process to identify gaps and report them back.
They also apprised the Minister of the preparations done for the dry run including setting up of session site, process of updation and collation of data, uploading it on CoWIN, training of the vaccinators, preparedness for any adverse event following immunization (AEFI), cold chain management, security of session sites and vaccine storage sites.
They expressed confidence in their preparedness regarding the mock drill and assured the Union Minister that they are in all preparedness for the actual exercise of vaccination of the identified beneficiaries.
Dr Vardhan also updated the officers on the status of the two leading vaccine candidates whose data are being closely monitored by the Subject Expert Committee of DCGI. He appreciated the efforts of front-line workers and expressed his condolence for those Corona warriors who sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save others.
Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, Delhi, Vandana Gurnani, AS&MD (NHM), Dr Manohar Agnani, Addl. Secy (H), Lav Agarwal, JS and other senior officers were present from the Ministry in the review meet for the dry run.
