Second dry run of Covid-19 vaccination held at 150 sites across Delhi

A second dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was conducted at 150 sites across all 11 districts of Delhi on Friday, officials said.

They said 10 vaccination centres were chosen in South Delhi for the dry run, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Safdarjung Hospital, the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital, and the Pushpwati Singhania Hospital and Research Institute.

In South East district, 19 sites were chosen across three sub-divisions.

The sites included the Batra Hospital, the Fortis Hospital, the Escorts Hospital, the National Heart Institute, the Holy Family Hospital, the Apollo Hospital and the MCW Gautampuri.

At the National Heart Institute, a staff member said, "We followed the procedure as would be done on the day of vaccination."

In North West district, the 12 sites chosen for the exercise included the Max Hospital and the Fortis Hospital, both at Shalimar Bagh, the Saroj Hospital, the Jaipur Golden Hospital and the BSA Hospital, the officials said.

Four sites were chosen in New Delhi district, including the Northern Railway Central Hospital and the Fortis hospital, Vasant Kunj.

India's drugs regulator has approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.

A total of 1,000 vaccination centres will be set up in Delhi, of which about 600 will be set up in the first phase, the officials said.

At every vaccination centre, there will be multiple booths, each to attend to a maximum of 100 people, they said.

Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to the people of Delhi for free once it arrives and asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had made all preparations for the vaccination drive.

Jain had said last week that the city government had so far made preparations to vaccinate one lakh people in a day.

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, the minister had said.

These include healthcare workers, who will be first to receive, followed by frontline workers, people aged above 50 and those below 50 years but with co-morbidities, he had said.

Vaccination centres will either be hospitals or facilities linked to hospitals.

The dry run of inoculation in the national capital was held on January 2 at three sites -- GTB Hospital, Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.