COVID vaccination: On-site registration for 18-44 age group now enabled on CoWIN
In a move to boost the largest vaccination drive, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced its plan to initiate on-site registration/facilitated cohort registration on the CoWIN digital platform for 18-44 years age group.
FollowThe Union Health Ministry has now decided to provide the facility of on-site registration/facilitated cohort registration on CoWIN digital platform for the 18-44 years age group. However, this feature is being enabled only for Government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs), at the present moment in time, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
With launch of phase 2 of the national vaccination drive on March 1, 2021, facility for only online registration and appointment of citizens aged 45 years or more was offered on CoWIN digital platform. The feature for on-site registration and appointment was introduced later for these priority groups.
Subsequently, the coverage of vaccination was expanded to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years on May 1, 2021. The facility of only online appointment mode given initially to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years helped to avoid overcrowding at the vaccination centres, said the ministry.
The decision was based on the various representations given by the states/UTs and inputs received by the Union Health Ministry for the vaccination of the 18-44 years age group.
The step aims at reducing vaccine wastage and facilitate those without access to the internet, smart phones or mobile phones with limited access for vaccination to get themselves inoculated.
“In 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 day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimize the vaccine wastage,” read the statement issued by the govt of India.
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 facilitated cohort’s facility and those without access to the internet or smartphones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination.
This feature will not be available for private CVCs as of now and the private CVCs will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments.
The Union Health Ministry has advised the States and UTs to issue clear instructions to all District Immunization Officers to strictly adhere to the decision of the 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.
In a landmark achievement, more than 19 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine has been administered so far.
NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitize, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona
