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.
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— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) May 24, 2021
🔵On-site Registration/Facilitated Cohort Registration in addition to Online Appointment for 18-44 years age group now Enabled on #CoWIN
🔵Feature enabled only for Government #COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs), presentlyhttps://t.co/2f9l06v79m
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.
The feature for now will be initiated only at government Covid vaccination facilities and not for private centres. Additionally, every state will be responsible for activating on-site registrations in their respective states.
The release further states, “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.”
The Ministry of Health has advised the states/ UTs to issue clear guidelines and instructions to all District Immunization Officers and recommends strict adherence to decisions of respective state governments regarding the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature.
To ensure maximum beneficiaries avail the feature, the Union Health Ministry says that fully reserved sessions can also be organized for providing vaccination services and efforts must be taken in advance to mobilize such beneficiaries in sufficient numbers.
The Ministry has further advised the states/ UTs to ensure maximum safety and caution to be exercised while opening up of on-site registration and appointment for 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres.
In a landmark achievement, more than 19 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine has been administered so far.
