COVID-19: On-site vaccine registration has been allowed for 18+ group
People who belong to the age group of 18-44 years can now walk-in to inoculation centers to seek help for vaccine registration on the digital Co-WIN platform, the central government said in a notification this afternoon. But this facility will only be available at state-run inoculation centers and not those managed by private hospitals, the government added. Here are more details on this.
The Centre also said it will allow walk-in registration and vaccination on the same day for a few beneficiaries in the 18+ group, in case doses meant for pre-registered individuals are left unused at the end of the day. This is aimed at minimizing vaccine wastage, it stated. However, the final decision to allow on-site Co-WIN registration has been left to states and UTs.
It should be noted the said facilities are already available for people aged above 45 but were disallowed for those under that age in an attempt to avoid overcrowding, the Centre has said. The fresh move has come amid a serious shortage of vaccines in several states, that has led to temporary closure of vaccination centers and brought criticism for the federal government.
In face of vaccine shortage, several state governments have tried to secure doses directly from foreign manufacturers. However, the governments of Delhi and Punjab said over the past couple of days that US drug companies like Pfizer and Moderna refused to sell shots directly to them. Other states that have floated global tenders to import vaccines include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
The Centre on Sunday said close to two crore vaccine doses are still available with states and Union Territories. However, states continue to flag shortages of shots, requesting the Centre to allocate additional doses urgently. On Saturday, the Delhi government suspended vaccinations for 18-44 group citing lack of doses. Earlier, states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, and West Bengal also took similar decisions.
India has so far given approval to three vaccines - the indigenously developed COVAXIN, Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, and the Russia-made Sputnik V. The country has administered 19.6 crore vaccine doses so far, but only 3.8% of the Indian population has been fully vaccinated as yet. Daily coronavirus cases in India had peaked at 4,14,000 and have now come down to nearly two lakh.
