NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, MAY 24
Even as the Centre now allowing on-site registration and appointment for the 18-44 years age group on the CoWin platform, the Gujarat government on Monday said it will conduct COVID-19 vaccination through the present system wherein a prior registration and appointment is a must to receive jabs.
After the Centre’s announcement, Gujarat Health and Family Welfare Department issued a statement saying this new feature of “on the spot registration” will not be applicable in the state for now. The state government will continue to follow the present system of “prior registration” wherein beneficiaries are given the date, time and place of vaccination after they complete the online registration process, Principal Secretary, Health, Gujarat, Jayanti Ravi said in the statement.
Ravi said there was no change in this system as of now and people who wanted to get inoculated should get themselves registered through the official mobile application or website. She also denied some media reports suggesting that instead of prior registration through a mobile application or official website, people in the 18-44 age band can now opt for “on the spot” registration by just walking in vaccination centres in Gujarat.
Earlier in the day, the Union Health Ministry said that on-site registration and appointment has now been enabled for the 18-44 years age group on the CoWin platform for COVID-19 vaccination. However, this feature is being enabled only for government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs) at present, it said.
This feature will not be available for private CVCs and they will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments. This feature will be used only upon decision of respective states and UT governments. A total of 1,83,843 beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 years received the first dose of the vaccine so far as of May 23, the state government had said.
