The second dry run for Covid vaccination will be held on Friday across 23 districts of Bengal. Each district will have three vaccination centres.

The first dry run was restricted to three centres in North 24-Parganas. The second round will take place in 69 centres.

Health department officials said over 10,000 personnel at different tiers of the healthcare system — from block primary health centres to medical colleges and hospitals — would be involved in the process, which will test the state government’s preparedness before the vaccination drive starts.

The Centre has proposed to roll out Covid vaccines from next week.

“The first dry run was restricted to Bidhannagar, Madhyamgram and Amdanga in Barasat. This time we have centres even in far-flung areas to see how the chain is functioning,” said Tapas Roy, the chief medical officer of health of North 24-Parganas, which has been hit hard by Covid.

On Wednesday, senior officials at Swasthya Bhavan met the chief medical health officers of all districts and asked them to prepare 25 candidates for each vaccination centre where the dry run would be carried out.

The district superintendents of police have been asked to provide personnel who will act as guards at each of the centres.

A team of doctors is being readied to supervise the process. Over 150 such teams will be in place during Friday's dry run and each vaccination centre will have an ambulance ready to take care of any emergency.

“Apart from the teams that will directly be involved in the dry run, a large number of health employees in the district will witness the proceedings at each of the three centres so they get conversant with the process,” said Prakash Mirdha, the chief medical officer of health of Jhargram.

“Around half of the 500-odd vaccinators of the district will be involved directly or indirectly with the trial run.”

In Jhargram district, the trial run will be held at a nurses’ training school in Jhargram town, a primary health centre in Silda's Binpur II and a block primary health centre in Gopiballavpur.

The chief medical officers of health have been asked to choose centres across three categories — medical college and hospital, district hospital located in an urban pocket, and block primary health centre and rural hospital.

Over the past few weeks, over 20,000 vaccinators have been trained in injecting Covid-19 jabs. Separate training sessions have been held for cold chain handlers and those who will handle data.