Tamil Nadu ready for COVID-19 vaccine roll out, says Health Secy after dry run

Chennai

The exercise was meant to check for loopholes in logistics and training before the vaccine is rolled out.

The dry run began at 17 sites in five districts — three sites each in Chennai, Thiruvallur, The Nilgiris and Tirunelveli, and five sites in Coimbatore.

Radhakrishnan inspected the exercise at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Saturday morning.

"By afternoon, the drill was completed for 27 healthcare workers," said Therani Rajan, dean of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

Speaking about the takeaways from the exercise, Radhakrishnan said, "An initial learning was that the room earmarked for vaccination should be more spacious." He added that the dry run — involving about 2,000 personnel and 510 participants — showed that all preparations were in 'ready' mode for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in the state.

The Health Secretary also said that officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also witnessed the drive.

The specific stages of the vaccination programme, the vaccination network throughout the State, human resources, internet connectivity and facilities within the observation room were examined and analysed by the state health department officials.

Volunteers verified the identity cards of the healthcare workers at the vaccination site and noted their details. They were then sent to the vaccination room for administration of the vaccine.

After the administration of the vaccine, the healthcare workers were sent an SMS on completion of the process. It included information on the CoWIN app and schedule of the booster shot of the vaccine will be informed.

Also Read: 5 things you should know about the COVID-19 vaccine dry run in Tamil Nadu

According to the Health Department, six lakh health personnel have already registered for the vaccination and other frontline workers were set to register themselves, followed by the elderly and those with co-morbidities.

(With inputs from PTI, IANS)

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