Bengaluru/Ramanagara, Karnataka deputy chief minister, C. N. Ashwath Narayana rolled up his sleeves and asked a government hospital nurse to administer him the "first shot" of the vaccine while taking part in a nation-wide Covid-19 vaccination dry-run in different health facilities.

The incident took place when Narayana, who is also Ramanagara district in-charge minister, was at the local government hospital, to take stock of how the vaccination dry-run was conducted there.

District health officer Niranjan explained to the minister about the procedures such as, each individual after taking vaccination, must stay at least 30 minutes in an exclusive room next to the vaccination ward.

The second dry-run of Covid-19 vaccination in the state was held in 263 vaccine session sites across all districts on Friday.

It was conducted to assess the state's preparedness at all levels before the actual rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine for 6,35,986 registered healthcare workers in the first phase, said Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

Sudhakar had said on Thursday that the union government had directed all states to take up Covid-19 vaccination on a campaign mode.

The minister also visited some facilities in Bengaluru, where the dry-run was conducted said, arrangements and preparedness were quite good, and the process is being followed as per the guidelines issued.

"The first round of the dry-run, an exercise for end- to-end testing of Covid-19 vaccination process was held in five districts of Karnataka - Bengaluru (including BBMP), Belagavi, Kalburgi, Mysore and Shivamogga- on January 2 as per the union government guidelines," he said.

This dry-run was held at 24 district hospitals, 20 medical college hospitals, 43 taluk hospitals, 31 community health centres, 87 primary health centres, 30 urban primary health care centers and 28 private health centres, the Minister explained.

He added that the union government has provided 24 lakh syringes to the state. "We have 10 walk-in coolers, four walk-in freezers, 3,201 ice-lined refrigerators (ILRs), 3,039 deep freezers, 3,312 cold boxes, 46,591 vaccine carriers and 2,25,749 ice packs. The union government has also provided 64 Large ILRs with the capacity of 225 liters each. An additional two walk-in coolers and one walk-in freezer will be received from the union health ministry soon," he said.