New Delhi (NVI): The central government today allowed the on-site registration and appointment for vaccination of 18-44 years age group on CoWIN digital platform.
This feature is being enabled only for Government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs), at the present moment in time, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.
“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, ” the Ministry said.
In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimize the vaccine wastage, it said.
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 internet or smart phones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination.
Therefore, the feature for on-site registration and appointment is now being enabled for 18-44 years age group on CoWIN, the Ministry said.
This feature will not be available for Private CVCs, presently and the Private CVCs will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments.
However, States and UT have to 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, the statement said.
The Union Health Ministry has advised the States and UTs to issue clear instructions to 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.
Fully reserved sessions can also be organized for providing vaccination services to the beneficiaries belonging to facilitated cohorts. Wherever such fully reserved sessions are organized, all efforts must also be made to mobilize such beneficiaries in sufficient numbers.
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.
