Hyderabad: A state-wide Covid-19 vaccination trial and dry run will be held on January 7 and 8 as Telangana state gears up to administer the actual vaccine to its healthcare and staff from other frontline departments such as police and civic services to be followed by other sections of society.
Unlike the January 2 limited dry run that saw four hospitals in Hyderabad and three in Mabubnagar district being tested for their readiness, the second dry run, will put all the 1,200 identified Covid-19 vaccination centres in the state through their paces. The exercise will test the readiness of the staff, materials required and logistics involved in ensuring daily vaccination of up to 10 lakh people.
While the number of doses administered may be low initially, once the pace picks up and adequate number of doses are made available to the state, the department hopes to hit this mark. The department has so far trained 10,000 of its staff including doctors, nurses, and other support workers to receive and check credentials of vaccine recipients, administer the vaccine, and keep them under observation for a minimum of half an hour before allowing the individuals to leave the hospitals. “Each of the trained personnel should be able to vaccinate 100 people a day,” a senior health department official said.
The official said that the department is also ready to provide any immediate care, in the rare event such assistance may be required by any of the vaccine recipients who may develop a reaction after receiving the jab. Every health care facility where the vaccinations are to be given will have medicines required to treat commonly occurring reactions post vaccination.
