While there was positive news throughout the previous months that the pandemic has lost its edge as exhibited by sharp decline in the number of daily caseloads, a great relief came on Saturday when the Union Health Ministry through its daily COVID bulletin informed that India has recorded its lowest fatalities since June 2. Despite the alarming bells that rang in high pitch much before the onset of winter that the season will be more troublesome than the summer and monsoon phases, the current on-ground picture supplemented by figures hints the worst may be over. In last 24 hours, the country reported 22,273 new  cases taking the tally to over 1.01 crore and although this fat figure along with over 2.81 lakh active counts may usher in some uncomfortable feelings, the brightest factor which will perhaps efface the above gloominess is the fact that over 97.40 lakh people have already recovered and are back to normal life. This feel-good atmosphere has further been enriched by the news that the first on-ground practical demonstration of the gigantic exercise that will keep the country busy for at least 9 months starting January will be held on December 28 and 29. The chief motto of all stakeholders now must be to keep the current war-footing tempo alive and make the vaccination challenge a success.

These two days will be of extreme importance since there will be a dry run for the massive inoculation exercise, actually the largest and most ambitious mass immunisation programme in the public health history of the country. The dummy vaccination exercise will be carried out in two districts each in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Assam. Understandably, the reason for this four-corner pick is to give a pan-India touch to the effort and the primary details that are available suggest that each of these districts will receive the dummy vaccine for 100 beneficiaries from the nearest depot with temperature tracking throughout the journey, accompanied by sending of SMS in advance to the beneficiaries with the name of the vaccinator and the time of the vaccination and at the end a monitoring of health condition of the beneficiaries spanning 30 minutes after administration of the shot to bring under the radar any adverse impact, if any. The whole exercise will be an exact replica of the complete vaccination methodology to be rolled out when the actual process starts.

Arunachal Pradesh will be a part of this exercise and with the PR and Municipal polls just ending, the entire administrative thrust must now shift to the vaccination challenge. The singular aim must be in making it smooth and the obstacles, mainly relating to infrastructural ones, must be surpassed with double efforts. 

---

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

<< Back to News List