Wednesday, 16 June 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Prior booking and pre-online registration are now no longer mandatory for Covid vaccination. “Walk-ins are allowed. This means, anyone aged 18 years or more can directly go to the nearest vaccination centre, where the vaccinator performs the on-site registration and provides vaccination in the same visit, for Covid vaccine,” Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said, “The facilitated registration through the Common Service Centres on Co-WIN is just one of the many modes of registration on Co-WIN.”
The facilitators such as health workers or ASHAs also mobilise beneficiaries in rural areas and those residing in urban slums, for on-site registration and vaccination directly at the nearest vaccination centers. The Ministry also said that the facility for assisted registrations through the 1075 Help Line has also been operationalised.
“That, all the above modes, specifically operationalised for rural areas, are functional and enabling equitable access to vaccination in rural areas, is evident from the fact that, as on 13.06.2021, out of the 28.36 crore beneficiaries registered on Co-WIN, 16.45 crore (58 per cent) beneficiaries have been registered in the on-site mode,” the Ministry said.
It added that out of the total 24.84 crore vaccine doses recorded on Co-WIN as on June 13, 19.84 crore doses or nearly 80 per cent of all vaccine doses had been administered through walk-in vaccination.
The Ministry said from May 1 till June 12, out of the total 1,03,585 CVCs providing vaccination services, 26,114 are operated at the Sub-Health Centres, 26,287 at the Primary Health Centres and 9,441 at the Community Health Centres, amounting to 59.7 per cent of the total vaccination centres.
All of these CVCs at the Sub-Health Centres, the Primary Health Centres and the Community Health Centres are in rural areas where people can directly walk-in for on-site registration and vaccination, it said.
According to the Ministry, out of the total 69,995 vaccination centres so far classified by States on Co-WIN as rural or urban, 49,883 vaccination centres, i.e. 71 per cent, are located in rural areas.
The Centre said as per the data available on Co-WIN till June 3, the vaccination per million population in tribal districts was higher than the national average. It said 128 out of 176 tribal districts were performing better than all India vaccination coverage.
