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Covid vaccination: Centre enables on-site registration for 18-44 age group
The service, however, currently is allowed only for government-run vaccination centres, and private centres will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments
Union ministry of health on Monday enabled on-site registration for 18-44 years age group on the CoWin platform for all government Covid vaccination centres. This was in addition to the facility of online appointments provided for this population group, it said in a statement.
“…based on the various representations given by the states and inputs received by Union Health Ministry for the vaccination of 18-44 years age group, the Union government has now decided to provide facility of on-site registration/facilitated cohort registration on CoWIN digital platform for 18-44 years age group,” the statement said.
As per government data, 10 million beneficiaries in this population group have currently been vaccinated across the country.
“Even though CoWIN provides for features such as registration of up to 4 beneficiaries with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications, such as ArogyaSetu and Umang and through the Common Service Centres etc., people requiring cohort’s facility and those without access to internet or smart phones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination. Therefore, the feature of on-site registration and appointment is now being enabled for 18-44 years age group on CoWIN,” it added.
The service, however, currently is allowed only for government-run vaccination centres, and private centres will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments.
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With the launch of phase 2 of the national Covid-19 vaccination drive on March 1, this year, facility for only online registration and appointment of citizens aged 45 years or more was offered on CoWIN digital platform.
Later, the Central government expanded the drive to include people in the age group of 18 to 44 years from May 1, under the implementation of the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 vaccination strategy. Initially, the facility of only online appointment mode was offered to people in this age group in order to avoid overcrowding at the vaccination centres.
However, the ministry has also allowed the vaccination centres offering online slots only to take some walk-ins at the end of the day against cancellations, to avoid vaccine wastage.
“… In case of sessions exclusively organised with online slots, towards the end of the day, some doses may still be left unutilised in case the online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimise the vaccine wastage,” the ministry statement read.
The Centre has also directed states to issue clear instructions to all district immunization officers, to strictly adhere to decision regarding the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature for this age group.
The ultimate decision, however, will be of the state whether to offer this facility for 18-44 years category or not.
“State/UT must decide on opening of on-site registrations/facilitated cohorts’ registration and appointments for 18-44 years age group based on the local context just as an additional measure to minimize vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years. Also, abundant caution should be exercised and extreme due care should be taken while opening up of on-site registration… in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres,” the statement further read.
