Srinagar: With India getting closer to the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine, like elsewhere in the country, a dry run was held today at three identified districts of Srinagar, Jammu and Kulgam.
Financial Commissioner Health & Medical Education, Atal Dulloo, inaugurated and monitored the sessions of administration of COVID-19 vaccination to the beneficiaries at the selected sites.
At Srinagar, Director Health Services, Kashmir, Dr Samir Mattoo, supervised the administration of COVID-19 vaccination to the beneficiaries at Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital Rainawari and in the UPHCs of Nishat and Batamaloo respectively, an official press release informed.
It said at Kulgam, the COVID-19 vaccination in Kulgam district was administered to beneficiaries at District Hospital Kulgam and Community Health Centres of Yaripora and Kujjar, where all the operational guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination roll out were followed in dry run activities.
At Jammu, the vaccination was administered at the selected session sites at Government Hospital, Sarwal and Community Health Centres of Marh and Bishnah. Director Health Services, Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma and Director Health and Family Welfare supervised the Covid-19 dry-run on beneficiaries.
Financial Commissioner informed that all protocols pertaining to vaccinations were strictly followed in all the three districts and elaborated that three rooms, as per the guidelines, designated for COVID-19 vaccination were set-up. These rooms included the Waiting room, Vaccination room and the Observation room.
Dullo informed that 25 beneficiaries from each vaccination site were pre-identified and uploaded on to the COWIN portal. Also, five member Trained Vaccination Team already uploaded on COWIN App was present with pre-designated roles and responsibilities.
Besides, special attention was also given to AEFI Management and on disposal of bio-medical waste.
Meanwhile, the functioning of COWIN App, on which all beneficiaries are going to be uploaded, was demonstrated to Media personnel.
Later, a meeting of UT Level Task force was chaired by the Financial Commissioner who had feedback from all the districts regarding the vaccination. He directed all the officers to resolve all the issues identified in today’s mock drill.
Meanwhile, district level task force meetings were also conducted at all the districts which were chaired by Deputy Commissioners of the respective districts.
Meanwhile, for implementation of various preparatory activities related to introduction of COVID-19 vaccine, the District Level Task Force (DLTF) Srinagar held its third meeting to review the arrangements for smooth implementation of plan formulated as per guidelines issued by the government.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, who is also the chairman of DLTF Srinagar, reviewed the preparedness including status of logistics and manpower required to assist the teams of health department for vaccination. Issues related to deputation and training of officials from various departments for notified duties as a part of vaccination team were also discussed.
According to an official press release, the DLTF was briefed about the preparedness and further requirements on part of various stakeholders. It was informed that more than 14,000 healthcare workers have been identified and updated on portal for vaccination during Phase-I which is aimed at covering frontline workers.
Meanwhile database of officials from Police, Education, ICDS and Revenue, who shall be part of vaccination teams across the district, is being created. Sixty locations have been earmarked as vaccination points in the district which include buildings of various departments to be utilised for the purpose.
DC Srinagar directed for early completion of database updating for more than 500 private healthcare institutions identified under the plan while the process has been completed for the 135 government health institutions.
He complimented the health teams for their outstanding work in micro-planning and directed the member departments to depute their officials immediately for training and awareness.
The meeting was informed that SDMs have been asked to coordinate logistics and manpower required by the vaccination teams and health department at the local level. The DC asked the power department for installation of DG sets at locations proposed by concerned Zonal Medical Officers through respective SDMs.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jahangir Bakshi gave a detailed presentation about the status of planning process, logistics support required and the dry run conducted at Nishat, Rainawari and Batmaloo in presence of Director Health Services, ADC Srinagar, JD Planning, SDMs, ZMOs and medical officers.
JD Planning briefed the meeting about deputation of officials from Revenue, ICDS and Education. Apart from departmental representatives, each team will have a police component and volunteers. Members are also being roped in for crowd management.
Earlier, dry run for COVID-19 vaccination was conducted at Nishat, Rainawari and UPHC Batmaloo to fine-tune the vaccination process and preparedness.
Director Health Services Dr Sameer Mattoo, ADC Srinagar Syed Hanief Balkhi, Joint Director Mohammad Yaseen Lone, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jahangir Bakshi, MS Dr Bilqees Shah, Zonal Medial Officer and health officers oversaw the preparedness drill at designated locations, the press release informed.
