BENGALURU: The second dry run for the Covid-19 vaccine, held across Karnataka on Friday, was conducted smoothly, barring some technical problems, mainly in Udupi and Bengaluru. Vaccination centres experienced issues pertaining to network connectivity and non-receipt of the one-time password (OTP) by ‘beneficiaries’, generated on the CoWIN portal, leading to confusion and delays.
The dry run — basically a mock drill ahead of the actual Covid-19 vaccination drive — was conducted across 281 health centres all over the state, which included district hospitals, medical colleges, taluk hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres, urban primary health care centres and private health centres.
However, technical issues were experienced with the CoWIN portal, mainly in Udupi and Bengaluru. Health officials noticed problems with the OTP generation, a prerequisite to authenticate the identity of the person receiving the vaccination and to upload data on the CoWIN app.
In Udupi, a frontline Covid warrior who had volunteered, failed get his OTP even after half an hour on his mobile phone at the Government MCH hospital. Vaccination officers later found it was not an anomaly, but that the beneficiary was not carrying the mobile phone seeded with his/her Aadhaar number.
Officials suggest WiFi for PHCs
UDUPI Deputy Commissioner G Jagadish said the challenges were noted down during the dry run and the real vaccination drive will be made foolproof. In Bengaluru too, some such cases came to light, but network connectivity too posed a probem for the CoWIN portal. Health officials suggested that Wifi or broadband connections be set up even at primary health centres to upload the data on the CoWIN portal, and to register and generate OTP.
“The dry run in Karnataka went off well, but in a few places, there were network issues. This was mainly seen with the CoWIN software in the morning, which we set right later. Last time, the dry run was only in five districts, but this time it took place in all the districts across all kinds of facilities including private hospitals,” said Arundhati Chandrashekar, Managing Director, National Health Mission.
Health officials said that during the actual vaccination, some may get slight allergic reactions, common in all types of vaccination, and assured that people should not worry as they have put in place adequate assessment and treatment mechanisms.
PM to interact with CMs on Monday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers of all states on January 11 to discuss the Covid-19 situation and the vaccination rollout in the country, his office said on Friday. This will be the Prime Minister’s first interaction with chief ministers following the recent approval of two coronavirus vaccines for restricted emergency use by India’s drug regulator. India is preparing for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. The PM has often spoken with state chief ministers following the pandemic’s outbreak in the country.