Covid-19 vaccination: 20% of slots to be reserved for Co-WIN bookings

To increase the Covid-19 vaccination coverage, the district health department has decided to reopen online vaccination slots on the Co-WIN platform for the first and second dosages from Wednesday

To increase the Covid-19 vaccination coverage, the district health department has decided to reopen online vaccination slots on the Co-WIN platform for the first and second dosages from Wednesday. Nearly 20% of the vaccine doses at government health centres will be reserved for those taking an online appointment, health department officials said.

The Covishield Covid-19 vaccine will be administered at 47 vaccination centres, while 130 doses of Covaxin will be administered at five urban health centres. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The online booking of slots for the first dose is resuming after four months, while it was opened twice last week for the second dose inoculation.

According to the chief medical officer, Dr Virender Yadav, online slots will now be opened every day to facilitate vaccinations for people who cannot wait in the direct walk-in lines at vaccination centres.

“Considering the regular supply of vaccine stock from the state, we have planned to open online slots for both the doses. It will help people who often complain about waiting time and unavailability of tokens at the vaccination centres. Those who book slots online can get vaccinated between 10am and 2pm, while walk-in beneficiaries will be vaccinated till 4pm. It will help increase the coverage and further, streamline the vaccination process at government health centres,” said Dr Yadav.

Starting Wednesday, at least 1,170 slots for the first dose and 1,320 slots for the second dose will be made available on Co-WIN. For direct walk-in, about 4,680 doses will be given as the first shot and 5,930 as the second shot at 52 vaccination centres.

The Covishield vaccine will be administered at 47 vaccination centres, while 130 doses of Covaxin will be administered at five urban health centres.

Currently, the focus is on increasing the second dose coverage in the district. The health department reserves almost 60% of the total dose for the second shot and 40% for the first shot.

On Tuesday, 15,375 vaccine doses were administered in the district, taking the overall vaccination coverage to 2,392,848. Data on the Co-WIN dashboard shows that nearly 1.7 million people in the district have taken their first dose and roughly about 700,000 have taken both doses. Also, vaccination has increased in August compared to July, from about 340,000 doses to around 500,000 doses.