Dr Harsh Vardhan interacts with Health Ministers of States/UTs to review preparedness and seek their personal leadership in glitch-free Dry Run of 8th Jan

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare today interacted with the Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries/ Additional Chief Secretaries of the States/UTs to review the preparedness for the nationwide Mock Drill on the COVID vaccination scheduled for tomorrow, 8th January, through video conference here today. He also urged for their keen overview and personal indulgence to lead the whole exercise. The second nationwide mock drill on the Covid19 vaccination will be held at three session sites of 736 districts across 33 States/UTs.

The objective of the mock drill on COVID19 vaccination is to simulate the actual vaccine administration event. The entire planning of the vaccination drive including beneficiary registration, microplanning and vaccination at the planned session site, will be tested under the leadership of District Collector/District Magistrate. The dry run will also familiarize the State, District, Block and Hospital level officers on all aspects of COVID-19 roll out. This activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identification of any residual challenges prior to the actual implementation and to provide confidence to the programme managers at all levels to carry out a smooth implementation of the vaccination drive.

Shri Biplab Kumar Deb, Chief Minister (also holds Health portfolio), Tripura, Shri Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Dy. Chief Minister & Health Minister, Andhra Pradesh, Sh. Nitinbhai Patel, Dy. Chief Minister & Health Minister, Gujarat, Shri Mangal Pandey, Health Minister, Bihar, Dr. MK Sharma, Health Minister, Sikkim, Dr C Vijaybaskar, Health Minister, Tamil Nadu, Shri Etela Rajendra, Health Minister, Telangana,  Shri Rajesh Tope, Health Minister, Maharashtra, Shri Langpoklakpam Jayantakumar Singh, Health Minister, Manipur, Smt. K. K. Shailaja Teacher, Health Minister, Kerala, Shri Vishwajit Rane, Health Minister, Goa, Dr. Keshavareddy Sudhakar, Health Minister, Karnataka, Shri T.S. Singh Deo, Health Minister, Chhattisgarh, Shri Satyendra Kumar Jain, Health Minister, Delhi, Dr. Prabhuram Choudhary, Public Health and Family Welfare Minister, Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Raghu Sharma, Medical & Health Minister, Rajasthan, Shri Pratap Jena, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water, Law, Housing & Urban Development Minister, Odisha, and Shri Pijush Hazarika, Minister of State (Health), Assam attended the meet.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan started by reminding everyone that the country has completed a year of successfully battling the pandemic with the first meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) of MoHFW on COVID being held on 8th of January, 2020. Restating his appreciation and unwavering support to the tireless work of the frontline workers who are working on the ground, he also mentioned how Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s dynamic, and unwavering leadership has ensured that India not only the highest recovery rate in the world but also a beacon of hope for other countries who are dependent on India’s export of N95 masks, PPE Kits for their own containment efforts. He credited this shift in India’s trajectory to the Atmanirbhar Yojana led by the Hon. Prime Minister.

Dr Harsh Vardhan appreciated the tireless efforts being made by the multiple stakeholders including the central and state government officials and the medical community who have worked proactively in the last few months to compose and disseminate detailed guidelines on the upcoming vaccination drive, train the vaccine administrators. He also expressed gratitude to the scientific community who have worked tirelessly to bring the country two vaccines which have recently received the Emergency Use Authorization few days back.

The Health Minister highlighted the unique digital platform, Co-WIN, repurposed from the e-VIN platform that will provide real time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine. This platform will assist the program managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule. More than 78 lakh beneficiaries have been already registered on the platform, he stated.

The Minister reassured all his State counterparts that the country’s cold chain infrastructure has been sufficiently upgraded to ensure last mile delivery and that adequate supplies of syringes and other logistics have also been provided for: “India has unparalleled experience in dealing with immunization and runs one of the largest universal immunization programs in the world which has been applauded by the world for its robustness”. He referred to India’s several successful immunization drives with respect to Polio, Rubella and Measles and also narrated his personal experience from the early nineties of having galvanized efforts of millions of Indians which eventually led to the eradication of Polio from the country. “The rich experience of the country from the UIP and the anti-polio campaign are being used to strengthen the processes of COVID19 vaccination”, he stated.

Following this, he reminded his state counterparts to also ensure that the National Immunisation Day (NID) scheduled on 17^th Jan, 2021 is also given due importance. He requested the State/UT health ministers to ensure that non-COVID essential services are not adversely impacted. “It is with the collaborative efforts of the States/UTs and multiple partners that India and 11 other countries of the South East Asia region of WHO have been declared polio free. It should be our endeavour to sustain India’s Polio-free status”, he stated. Drawing attention to some neighbors still having cases of wild polio, he said that it is important that the NIDs are effectively rolled out.

Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that to strengthen the capacity of our human resource for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels. He said the entire operational planning and IT platform has been field tested on several occasions before the second national dry run of tomorrow. The earlier national mock drill of 2^nd Jan 2021 helped to  iron out any glitches in the final execution and further refinement of the operational procedures. The feedback from most of the States/UTs was satisfactory conduct of the dry run.

Seeking their personal indulgence, leadership and keen oversight for tomorrow’s national dry run, Dr Harsh Vardhan requested the Health Ministers to be vigilant against rumours and disinformation campaigns regarding the safety and efficacy of the COVID19 vaccine. He rubbished the rumours being propagated on social media which are raising doubts in the mind of the public regarding the vaccine side-effects and said, “These miscreants might derail the whole exercise, set the clock back by years”. He urged the State health authorities to work with the multiple stakeholders and the youth to spread the right information and dispel rumours and mistruths being spread about the COVID19.

The State/UT ministers shared their feedback and experience from the past dry run exercises and the preparedness for the tomorrow’s exercise. They informed about the training sessions held for vaccinators, updation of the database of beneficiaries, cold chain management, session allocation, reporting of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) etc. Union Minister was also apprised that the meeting on the State level, district level and block level are being conducted regularly. Effective communication is being carried out in the States to disseminate the correct information about Vaccines.

Union Health Secretary Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Ms. Vandana Gurnani, AS & MD (NHM), Shri Manohar Agnani, Addl. Secretary (Health), Shri Lav Agarwal, Jt. Secretary (Health) and other senior officials of the Ministry were present at the meeting.