New Delhi, March 1: The second phase of the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive for age-appropriate population groups began on Monday with the Union Health Ministry calling out eligible people to get an appointment at respective hospitals in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first ones to receive the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday as vaccination opened for the general population, beginning with people above 60 and those with co-morbidities above 45. Citizens will be able to register and book an appointment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the COWIN 2.0 portal or through other IT (information technology) applications such as Arogya Setu, etc.
The Central government released a new framework for Co-WIN2.0 on Sunday. According to the new framework, the schedule of vaccination of eligible beneficiaries will be closely linked with the availability of vaccine doses. The states and Union Territories will determine the target number of doses to be administered in a vaccination cycle.
“The target number of doses is to be determined considering the available stocks and the requirement of further vaccine stocks for the second dose since, when a beneficiary is being vaccinated with the first dose, Co-WIN will automatically confirm the appointment of the beneficiary for the second dose at the same vaccination centre,” the government said.
To avoid confusion and problems in physical queue management at COVID-19 Vaccination Centre (CVC), the central government has recommended that one particular CVC may be either fully reserved or their full capacity is opened for online self-appointment.
On the other hand, if a CVC has both reserved and open slots, session timings for open slots must be carefully selected to avoid overlap of beneficiaries.
