On-Site Registration For COVID-19 Vaccine: The feature for on-site registration and appointments is now being enabled for those are 18 and above for vaccine.
Eligible people in the 18-44 age group who are "without access to the internet or smartphones" can also avail of this facility by walking in to register themselves on the digital vaccination platform and get appointments to be vaccinated, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Monday.
The online appointee beneficiaries (on-site/walk-in) will only be administrated at state-run vaccination centres to "minimise wastage", the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Those vaccination centres run by private hospitals will not have the facility available at this moment, the statement clarified. Private centres will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments, a clarification issued by the health ministry.
However, the decision to allow on-site or walk-in CoWIN registration is left to the states or union territories and these decisions, the centre said, can be based on "local context".
The government's notification comes after several states have reportedly run out of doses and have been forced to shut inoculation centres. Read how to register on the CoWIN App here.
The states are instructed to utilise vaccine supplies in case any beneficiary does not turn up on the day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registrations/facilitated cohorts’ registration and appointments of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimise vaccine wastage. "Even though CoWIN provides for features such as registration of up to 4 beneficiaries with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications, such as Arogya Setu and Umang and through the Common Service Centres 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 deadly second wave surge prompted the government to expand the vaccination drive for anyone above 18 years of age from May 1, 2021. India has so far cleared for two vaccines - Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Covishield - which is made by the Serum Institute and was developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford University. Meanwhile, Russia's Sputnik V - a third vaccine - has also been approved for emergency use.
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