A dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was held in Delhi on Saturday for which three sites were chosen across the national capital, officials said.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain reviewed the exercise at a dispensary in Daryaganj, and said COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to people in the national capital for free once it arrives, and asserted that the city government has made all preparations for the vaccination drive.
Interacting with reporters during his visit to the facility, he said the system “seems flawless” as of now.
“I came to see the preparations as part of the dry run being done. Three sites have been selected for it GTB Hospital Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj, and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka,” he said, earlier in the day.
Three categories of facilities have been chosen, a government hospital, a private facility and a public dispensary, to see preparedness of all three, Jain said.
The activity was conducted by various state and union territory administrations on January 2 to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges.
All preparations are being done, and 1,000 vaccine centres will be set up across the city, the Delhi health minister said.
Delhi recorded 494 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in over seven months, and 14 new fatalities on Saturday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.73 per cent, authorities said.
The infection tally in the city stands at over 6.26 lakh and death toll rose to 10,561, they said.
Jain tweeted that the positivity rate has been below one per cent for the past 11 days.
From installing freezers to setting up cold chain equipment, arrangements have been made at a Delhi government hospital here for storing the vaccine, whenever it arrives.
The Delhi government is fully prepared to receive, store and administer COVID-19 vaccine to 51 lakh priority category persons in the city in the first phase of vaccination, Jain said.
These persons include the healthcare workers, who will be the first one to receive it, followed by frontline workers, people aged above 50 and those below 50 years but with co-morbidities.
