Beneficiaries who want to enrol for the next phase of India’s inoculation drive should register and book an appointment before turning up at the centres for the jab, RS Sharma, the chairperson of an empowered committee on Covid-19 vaccination, told News18 in an interview on Thursday.
Sharma, also the CoWin chief, added that those between 18 and 45 years will have to “book their appointments through those facilities” that would vaccinate this age group. “We are actually requesting those facilities also (to register),” he said.
“In case they (the facilities) are not doing it (vaccination) for what you call a captive audience, which is an industry group doing it for its employees etc…unless they are doing that, they need to make public the time table. So that people are able to see as to which facilities are available for vaccination,” he said.
The rush at vaccination centres is expected to increase sharply in view of India’s ambitious move to expand the vaccination programme at a time when the country is reeling from a brutal second wave of infections that is setting grim records every passing day. The vaccination drive, which began in mid-January, allows on-site registrations, apart from those done through CoWin.
Sharma explained that registering on the platform and scheduling an appointment were two different things, and that the latter would depend on the centres publishing their time tables. “That is why I’m saying we will request all the facilities to register on CoWin portal,” he said.
In the interview, he also said registration of all adults will begin within the next 48 hours on the government’s CoWin platform. “We will open the registration maybe tomorrow or day after…for the entire country,” Sharma said.
Soon after, the government clarified on Twitter that “registration for vaccination of 18+ citizens” will start on “the #CoWIN platform and Aarogya Setu App from 28th April 2021 onwards”.
At present, the government-sponsored drive covers only those above 45 years at designated vaccination sites. On Monday, the Centre made all adults eligible for the jab from May 1 and also allowed sales of vaccine to private players.
Vaccine-makers can sell 50% of what they produce directly to states and private players, while the rest will have to go to the Centre for the ongoing government-sponsored campaign that will remain limited to those above 45 years. Those between 18 and 45 will have to buy their vaccines once private sales begin or states buy stocks to vaccinate these people.
When asked how many registrations that government was expecting in the expanded drive, Sharma said the number “could be very high”. “I can’t give you an estimate at this point in time,” he said.
He appealed to people to ensure the process was carried out in an “organised way”. “If you get a prior appointment, it will be better. Otherwise, people might just walk in and their number could be much beyond the capacity of the vaccination centre…then there will be chaos,” he said.
“The best way to do it is through bookings and prior appointments. That way it will be much more orderly,” he said.
On average, India vaccinates 30 lakh people a day at present.
Sharma said there will be “no significant changes” to CoWin app. “The registration and the vaccination will continue as before,” he said. “Any facility that vaccinates people will have to use the vaccination module of the CoWin software so that we have real-time data of the people who are being vaccinated and which can be showed on the dashboard throughout the country….”
“We all try to provide the figure age-wise, gender-wise and vaccine-wise etc…The whole idea is we need to have a single source of truth regarding vaccination…,” he added.
India’s vaccination drive began on January 16 for health care workers. It was gradually expanded to accommodate front line workers, and then the population above 60 years and those above 45 years with underlying health conditions, or comorbidities. From April, the comorbidity clause was removed, making all above 45 eligible for the shot. Finally, India became one of the few countries to open the vaccination drive to all adults.
On Thursday, India recorded 314,835 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day rise reported anywhere in the world, surpassing the previous mark of 313,310 daily cases in the US on January 8.
(This story has been updated with the government’s clarification that registration of all adults for the next phase of the vaccination drive will begin on April 28)
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