The Centre closed registrations of healthcare and frontline workers for COVID-19 vaccination on Saturday, 3 April. In an order to all states and UTs, the Health Ministry attributed this decision to emerging reports of fake registrations of ineligible beneficiaries under this category.
The order, first reported by NDTV, stated:
“Various inputs have been received from different sources that in some of the CVCs (COVID vaccination centres), some ineligible beneficiaries are being registered as HCWs (Health care workers) and FLWs (Front line workers) and are getting vaccinated in complete violation of the prescribed guidelines”
The issue was discussed with state representatives and domain knowledge experts in the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) meeting held on Saturday, and the decision was arrived upon based on NEGVAC’s recommendation, noted the order.
A spike of 24 percent in registration had been observed in the last few days. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan noted in the order that those above 45 can get inoculated by registering on the CoWIN website. He asked states and Union Territories to ensure quick vaccination of healthcare and frontline medical workers who have already registered, IANS reported.
“I request you to kindly direct the concerned officials for wider dissemination of this policy decision for compliance. However, universal vaccination of already-registered HCWs (healthcare workers) and FLWs (frontline workers) should be ensured at the earliest,” stated Bhushan, according to the report.
The Health Ministry added that FLWs and HCWs had been prioritised and had ample time to get vaccinated. This move is to expand vaccine coverage to include more categories of the population, reported NDTV.
Over 7.44 COVID Vaccine Doses Administered
The Centre announced on Saturday that over 7.44 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the country till the 78th day of the drive. Here are some of the stats of India’s vaccination drive.
- 89,53,552 HCWs have taken the first dose
- 53,06,671 HCWs have taken the second dose
- 96,19,289 FLWs have taken the first dose
- 40,18,526 FLWs have taken the second dose
- 4,57,78,875 people over the age of 45 have taken the first dose
- 7,65,354 people over the age of 45 have taken the second dose
The COVID-19 vaccination drive started on 16 January after the approval of Covishield and Covaxin.
(With inputs from NDTV and IANS)
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