The government will start trial run of mass vaccination programme from Punjab on December 28 and 29. Other three states in which the trial runs are to be conducted include Assam, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The dry run will help test the mechanisms of the vaccine roll-out across the country, also in identifying and rectifying any weak links.
World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are supporting the trial runs. In Punjab, the programme will be conducted in Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
The entire process of vaccination, including data uploading, session site allocation, session site management with the recipients, will be conducted during the trials. The trial runs have been scheduled after it became known that Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) may soon grant emergency use authorisation for Covashield vaccine.
This vaccine has been developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by Pune based Serum Institute of India.
