On-site registration and appointment for COVID-19 vaccination is now being enabled for 18-44 years age group on CoWIN, a statement issued by the Union Health Ministry on Monday said.
However, this feature is being enabled only for government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs) now and would not be available for private CVCs presently. Private CVCs should publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments, it stated.
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 didnot turn up on the day of vaccination due to any reason, it noted.
“In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimize the vaccine wastage. Also even though CoWIN provides for features such as registration of up to four beneficiaries with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications, such as Arogya Setu and Umang, 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,’’ the Ministry said.
This feature would be used only upon the decision of the respective State/UT governments 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 context just as an additional measure to minimize vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years,’’ stated the release.
It advised the States and UTs to issue clear instructions to all district immunisation officers to strictly adhere to the decision of respective State/UT governments regarding the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature for 18 to 44 years age group.
Fully reserved sessions could also be organised for providing vaccination service to the beneficiaries belonging to facilitated cohorts. Wherever such fully reserved sessions are organized, all efforts must be made to mobilise such beneficiaries in sufficient numbers, urged the Ministry.
It further advised the States/UTs that abundant caution should be exercised and extreme due care taken while opening up on-site registration and appointment for 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at the vaccination centres.
