On Monday, the Central government has allowed walk-in registration for vaccination against Covid-19 infection for the 18-44 age group. Meanwhile, for now, the option is only available in government-run centres.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the online registration was meant to avoid over-crowding in the vaccination centres but now walk-in registration would further help to minimize the wastage of vaccine.
The ministry stated in a press release, “In case of sessions exclusively organized with online slots, towards the end of the day, some doses may still be left unutilized in the case of online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on the day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimize the vaccine wastage.”
The Centre has said that the decision is ‘local context’, as the centre has left the decision to allow on-site CoWIN registration on states and union territories.
It stated that “State/ UT must decide on the opening of on-site registrations/facilitated cohorts’ registration and appointments for 18-44 years age group based on the local context just as an additional measure to minimize vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years.”
It further added that the walk-in vaccination is only allowed in government-run centres, not in private vaccination centres. The private centres will continue their vaccination drive with online appointed slots.
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Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh asked the central government that where are the vaccines, through his Twitter account.
He tweeted, “A vaccination policy that excludes more than it includes is bound to fail. That’s why we said making CoWIN registration mandatory for ages 18-44 is a huge mistake. While the Modi Govt seems to have made amends, the issue now is, WHERE ARE THE VACCINES?”
A related development has been made by the BMC, Mumbai. BMC has allowed walk-in vaccination for lactating women in Mumbai, has issued instructions to the health department to give special consideration to lactating women post-delivery.