New Delhi: In order to ramp up Covid-19 vaccination among all above 18 years of age, the Union government has allowed on-site registration and appointment for the 18-44 years age group on the CoWIN platform for Covid-19 vaccination, the health ministry said on Monday.
However, this feature is being enabled only for Government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs), at the present moment in time, the ministry said in a statement.
The government said, the feature is enabled to use “some doses… left unutilised in case online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on day of vaccination”.
Under this feature, an individual can book an on-site registration online beforehand on the CoWIN portal for a jab.
However, 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.
The union government has authorised states to final decision on the same.
“feature will be used only upon the decision of the respective State/UT Government to do so. State/UT must decide on the 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,” An official press statement read.
Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has advised States to take precautions while opening up on-site registration and appointment for the 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres.
Earlier, the facility of only online appointment mode initially to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years helped to avoid overcrowding at the vaccination centres.
