150 troops in Delhi for Republic Day test positive

New Delhi, December 25

More than 150 Army troops, who are in New Delhi for the forthcoming Republic Day Parade, have tested positive for Covid-19, even as the country prepares to hold the first dry run to test readiness for the vaccine rollout.

The troops who tested positive have been isolated and are being medically managed. They are part of the contingents slated to march down the Rajpath on January 26. The parade is on for now and there is no proposal to not have the marching contingents.

Cold storage facility

• The present system consists of 85,634 cold storage (2 to 8°C) equipment across 28,947 points
• The current capacity can cover vaccination for first 3 crore target beneficiaries

The troops have come from various locations across the country. They travelled to New Delhi in the last week of November. All of them underwent Covid test and 150 of them have tested positive.

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The vaccine dry run is scheduled to be held on December 28 and 29 in four states—Punjab (north), Gujarat (west), Andhra Pradesh (south) and Assam (northeast). Each state will plan the trial in two districts and five sessions across district hospitals, community and primary health centres, urban sites, private health facilities and rural sites.

The idea is to prepare for parallel administration of the vaccine at multiple locations, once a vaccine is licensed.

The trial will test the efficacy of India’s digital vaccine delivery platform Co-WIN and of the cold storage and transportation arrangements. — TNS

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