Registration for COVID vaccination on CoWIN for those above 18 to begin from Apr 28

Registration for vaccination against COVID-19 for all those aged above 18 will begin on the CoWIN platform and Aarogya Setu app from April 28, officials said on Thursday. The inoculation process and documents to be submitted to get the jab remains the same as before.

The central government had announced that the vaccination for those above 18 years will begin across the country from May 1 as part of the third phase of the inoculation drive.

''It is clarified that #CoWin portal will be made ready for 18+ beneficiaries by 24th April. Registrations for 18+ citizens to book appointments (from 1st May) will begin on 28th April,'' the Union health ministry tweeted. From May 1, the present system of private COVID-19 vaccination centers receiving doses from the government and charging up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist and private hospitals will procure directly from vaccine manufacturers.

According to the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy, COVID-19 vaccination will continue to be free for eligible population groups comprising healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people above 45 years of age in government vaccination centers, which receive doses from the government of India.

Vaccine manufacturers would make an advance declaration of the price for 50 percent supply that would be available to state governments in the open market before May 1. Based on this price, states, private hospitals, industrial establishments may procure vaccine doses from manufacturers. Private hospitals would have to procure their supplies of COVID-19 vaccine exclusively from the 50 percent supply earmarked for other than the government of India channel.

''While the Centre has liberalized the vaccination policy, it does not mean that vaccines will be sold in pharmacists or chemist shops in the open market,'' health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had clarified on Wednesday.

The price charged for vaccination by private hospitals would be monitored, he said.

''The present dispensation where private COVID vaccination centers receive doses from the government and can charge up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist,'' the Union health ministry said.

Vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 percent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the government of India and would be free to supply the remaining 50 percent doses to state governments and in the open market. For the government of India vaccination centers, the eligible population would be the same, which exists today, that is healthcare workers (HCWs), frontline workers (FLWs), and population above 45 years of age. For other than the government of India channel, the eligibility would be all adult citizens of the country, the document said.

Vaccination against COVID-19 will continue to be free for eligible population groups in all those government COVID vaccination centers which receive vaccine doses from the central government. All vaccination (through the government of India vaccination centers and other than the government of India channel) will be part of the National Vaccination Programme, will follow all existing guidelines, will be captured on the CoWIN platform along with the stocks and price per vaccination applicable in all vaccination centers, will comply with Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) management and reporting, digital vaccination certificate and all other prescribed norms. The division of vaccine supply, which would mean 50 percent to the government of India and 50 percent to other than the government of India channel would be applicable uniformly across all vaccines manufactured in the country. However, the fully ready to use imported vaccine would be allowed to be utilized entirely other than the government of India channel, it said. The Centre from its share will allocate vaccines to states and union territories based on the criteria of performance (speed of administration, average consumption), the extent of infections (number of active COVID-19 cases), the document stated.

The second dose of all existing priority groups i.e. HCWs, FLWs, and people aged above 45, wherever it has become due, would be given priority, for which a specific and focused strategy would be communicated to all stakeholders. This policy would come into effect from May 1 and would be reviewed from time to time. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)