Centre has allowed the onsite registration and appointment of people in 18-44 age group on CoWin for coronavirus vaccination. The feature, however, will be available for government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs) only.
This feature will be used only upon decision of the respective State/UT Government to do so. 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 contextjust as an additional measure to minimize vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years.
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Meanwhile, Private CVCs will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments. The coverage of vaccination was expanded to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years on May 1 with the implementation of the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy.
1) In the case of sessions exclusively organized with online slots, towards the end of the day, some doses may still be left unutilized in case the online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on the day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimise vaccine wastage.
2) Even thoughCoWIN 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 facilitated cohort’s facility and those without access to the internet or smartphones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination.
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, the statement.
The Union Health Ministry has advised the States and UTs to issue clear instructionsto all District Immunization Officers to strictly adhere to decision of respective State/UT Government regarding the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature for 18 to 44 years age group.
Union Health Ministry has further advised States/UTs that abundant caution should be exercised and extreme due care should be taken while opening up of on-site registration and appointment for 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres.
