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Vaccine registration for those above 18 begins Apr 28: Govt
The Co-WIN platform, which is the backbone of India’s Covid-19 vaccination delivery system and is being modified to accommodate extra numbers, will be ready by Saturday, said the Union health ministry.
Registration for universal adult Covid-19 immunisation in India will begin next week when anyone above 18 can log onto the government’s vaccine portals and book an appointment, paving the way for a crucial stage of inoculation pivotal to arrest the devastating recent surge in infections.
The Co-WIN platform, which is the backbone of India’s Covid-19 vaccination delivery system and is being modified to accommodate extra numbers, will be ready by Saturday, said the Union health ministry. Adults can start registering for appointments from April 28, the ministry added.
“The entire process will be the same as it has been happening so far for the age-appropriate category. People can register through the Co-WIN web portal or the Aarogya Setu app, and book an appointment. In a few days it will be ready to roll,” said an official familiar with developments.
On Monday, the central government had announced it was opening up the vaccination drive to anyone above 18, allowing state governments to directly purchase shots and letting manufacturers earmark 50% jabs for states and private hospitals.
The Centre’s drive for those above 45 will continue at the current subsidized rates – free at government hospitals and ₹250 a shot at private facilities. Those between 18 and 45 will have to take jabs procured by state governments or private hospitals at open market prices.
The universal vaccination drive is an important step to tame the coronavirus outbreak, which is currently the worst in the world with 332,394 cases and 2,255 deaths posted on Thursday. . But experts have expressed concern at availability of adequate stock, given that the 18-45 population is estimated to be around 594 million. The government has currently administered around 130 million shots.
The Centre also issued a rebuttal to reports that it had booked all stock from Serum Institute of India – which makes Covishield – till May 25.
The government said state governments were free to procure from the manufacturer as per the revised government policy.
“A key feature of the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy is that the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to Govt. of India and would be free to supply remaining 50% doses to state governments and in the other than Govt. of India channel. The state governments are free to purchase the vaccine doses from the vaccine manufacturers,” said Union health ministry in a statement.
“There have been some media reports suggesting that Serum Institute of India (SII) has contracted all its production till 25th May 2021 to the Centre, and therefore till that date the State governments will not be able to procure vaccine from SII. These media reports are based on incorrect facts and are without any basis,” the statement read.
SII’s current production capacity is about 60-70 million doses per month. The firm hopes to expand this to around 100 million doses soon.
Under the revised vaccination strategy, the government has made pricing, procurement, eligibility, and administration open and flexible.
The vaccine makers will be able to sell half of what they produce at a price of their choosing to the open market and to state governments. The remainder will need to be supplied to Centre for the state-sponsored component of the vaccination programme.
If the vaccines have been imported as ready-to-use, the government will allow all of the stocks to be sold on the open market or to the states. The pricing for any doses sold in the open market will need to be “transparent”, although there will be no pricing cap, only monitoring.
“If you want to keep making noise, then nothing will be enough. These were the same people who were asking the government of India to open up vaccination for everyone, and allow states a free-hand to purchase the doses. Now that that has been done, then suddenly talks of shortages have again risen,” said a senior central government official aware of the matter, who did not want to be identified.
“The Centre hasn’t booked everything; the guidelines clearly say that only 50% of their stock every month will go to the central government, the rest they are free to sell. Nothing is going out of the country anyway. Their capacity is to be consumed within the country only, and central government will not book anything beyond 50%,” added the official.
