Maharashtra: Dry run for COVID-19 vaccination on January 8

On Tuesday, January 5, the State Health Minister, Rajesh Tope informed that a dry run for the vaccine for the coronavirus will be conducted in all districts of the state on January 8.

Earlier, a dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination process was held at three sites each in four districts of Maharashtra namely Pune, Nagpur, Jalna and Nandurbar. This was supervised by several officers including Principal Health Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas.

Mentioning that the dry run is aimed at checking the preparedness of the system for actual inoculation exercise, Tope added that the process for mass vaccination shall be modelled on the Election Commission of India's polling procedure. Furthermore, Tope stated that the Centre should bear the costs of vaccination of people from the below poverty line.

For example, a person can enter the health centre only after he/she shows an identity card and shall be administered the vaccine after verification. Moreover, the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation has recommended the restricted emergency use of Covishield and Covaxin.

On the other hand, a dry run was held by all states and union territories on Saturday, January 2, in preparation for a massive inoculation drive, with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan appealing to people not to be misguided by "rumours" and disinformation regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

In the past, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr VG Somani announced that the vaccines of Serum Institue of India, Covishield, and Bharat Biotech, Covaxin, have been granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation. Moreover, Dr VG Somani also informed that the permission to conduct phase III trials have been granted to Cadila Healthcare vaccine against the coronavirus. This comes a day after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) made recommendations to the Drugs Controller General of India to grant permission for restricted emergency use of the vaccines.