On-site Registration For Vaccination In Govt Centres Enabled For 18-44 Age Group On CoWin
Mumbai: In a recent development, the feature for on-site registration and appointment for COVID-19 vaccination has been enabled for the 18-44 age group on CoWIN. For now, the facility has been extended only to the government-run COVID-19 vaccination centres, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced.
This feature will not be available for private CVCs and they will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments. This feature will be used only upon the decision of respective states and UT governments.
The centre allowed COVID-19 vaccination for the 18–44 age group starting May 1 as part of liberalized pricing and accelerated national COVID-19 vaccination strategy. However, the vaccination campaign for this age group has been suspended due to a shortage in vaccine supply in many states and union territories.
The ministry said the facility of only online appointment mode initially to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years helped to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres.
“Especially in the case of sessions held with online slots, at the end of the day, some doses may still be left unused if the beneficiaries appointed online do not arrive on the day of vaccination for any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of some beneficiaries may be necessary to reduce vaccine wastage,” said the Health Ministry.
It states that even though CoWin provides for the registration of a maximum of four members with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications such as Aarogya Setu and Umang and through the Common Service Centres etc, people need “facilitated cohort’s facility and those without access to internet or smartphones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination.”
The Union Health Ministry has advised states and union territories to issue clear instructions to all district immunization authorities to strictly follow the decision of respective state and UT government “regarding the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature for 18 to 44 years age group.”
“Fully reserved sessions can also be organized to provide immunization services to the beneficiaries belonging to the facilitated groups. Wherever such fully reserved sessions are held, all efforts should also be made to raise the sufficient number of such beneficiaries,” the ministry said.
The Ministry also advised the States and Union Territories that utmost care should be taken while opening on-site registration and registration and appointment for 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres”, the statement said.
According to the health ministry, the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses for the 18-44 age group under the third phase of the vaccination drive crossed 10 million on Monday. It added that the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses exceeded 196 million on Monday.
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