Centre allows walk-in vaccines for all adults
NEW DELHI: The Union government on Monday allowed states to open on-site registration, appointments, and administration of doses for adults below the age of 45 seeking coronavirus vaccines, after repeated calls to abandon the digitalonly system that critics said was leaving out people who did not have access to smartphones or the internet.
The feature at present is being enabled only for government vaccination centres, the health ministry said, and it will depend on the state government to decide whether they want to allow on-site registrations and appointments based on the “local context” .
The move comes at a time when vaccines for the younger adult age group became available from May 1 but the demand soon surpassed supplies, exhausting stocks, and halting the drive in several states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
“Based on the various representations given by the states and inputs received by Union health ministry for the vaccination of 18-45 year age group, the Union government has now decided to provide facility of on-site registration/facilitated cohort registration on Co-WIN digital platform for 18-45 years age group,” the statement said.
The statement noted that “even though Co-WIN provides for features such as registration of up to 4 beneficiaries with a mobile number, facilitated registration and appointments through applications, such as AarogyaSetu and Umang and through the Common Service Centres etc, people requiring cohort’s facility and those without access to internet or smart phones or mobile phones may still have limited access for vaccination”.
The move was also meant to reduce vaccine wastage, the government said, suggesting states to open up vaccination centres to walk-in recipients if they have doses left over from appointment no-shows.
“In case of sessions exclusively organised with online slots, towards the end of the day, some doses may still be left unutilized in case the online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimise the vaccine wastage,” the statement said.
Experts pointed out that while the walk-in option may not immediately alter the pace of vaccination, it is a big policy shift whose impact will be visible when next month’s supplies are available.
“It will help in hastening the pace; care should be taken to prevent super-spreader events at vaccination sites,” said Dr Giridhara R Babu, head, epidemiology, Indian institute Of Public Health.
The government opened vaccinations for the under-45 adult age group in this month, but people need to first register online and book a slot before they can be served at vaccination centres. The demand has been such that several states have run out of stocks.