Daily News Capsule

As of Monday, the feature for on-site registration for 18-44 age group has been enabled on the Cowin portal, the ministry of health and family welfare informed today.

Though, the feature has been enabled only for the government covid centers, as for now. The health ministry said that the feature would not be available for the private covid centers at this time, and it also mentioned that the private CVCs will have to publish their vaccination schedules entirely with slots for online appointments.

“This feature will be used only upon the decision of the respective state/ UT government to do so. state/ UT me just decide on the opening of on-site registration/ facilitated cohort’s registration and appointments for 18-44 years age group based on the local context just an additional measure to minimize vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the group 18-44 years, “the ministry said in a statement.

The union health ministry has advised the various states and union territories to proceed with clear instructions to all district immunization officers to strictly stick to decisions of respective states and union territories governments concerning the extent and manner of using the on-site registration and appointment feature for 18-44 age group.

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The ministry further said that the fully reserved sessions can also be organized for providing vaccination advantage to the candidates belonging to the facilitated group.

“Wherever such fully reserved sessions are organized, all efforts must also be made to mobilize such beneficiaries in sufficient numbers,” read the release.

The union health ministry further guided the states and union territories that necessary cautions should be exercised and proper care should be taken while opening the on-site registration for 18-44 age group, to avoid overcrowding at the covid vaccination centers.

The ministry said that the facility of online appointment mode initially to 18-44 age group people only helped in minimizing the overcrowding at the vaccination centers.

As per the health ministry, some doses of vaccine may still remain unused if the online appointee beneficiaries do not come on the day of vaccination due to any reason.

In that case, on-site registration of few new beneficiaries would be necessary to combat the vaccine wastage, it said.

“Even though Cowin portal provides for features such as registration of upto 4 beneficiaries with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications, such as arogya setu app, and umang and through the common service centers 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, read the release.

The spread of covid vaccination among 18-44 age group people on May 1, 2021, with the implementation of liberalised pricing and accelerated national covid-19 vaccination strategy.