COVID-19: Centre allows walk-in vaccination for 18-44 at govt centres; states to take call

In a major development on Monday, the Centre has decided to allow the walk-in vaccination for the 18-44 age group at government COVID vaccination centres. While 1,06,21,235 vaccine doses have already been administered to the aforesaid category in India, this move is likely to further boost the inoculation pace. This decision was taken in the wake of the fact that some doses may be left unutilized in case the online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on the day of vaccination resulting in vaccine wastage.

Moreover, it also considered the proposition that people requiring facilitated cohort’s facility and those without access to the internet or smart phones or mobile phones may have limited access for vaccination. While the feature on the on-site registration has been enabled on the CoWIN app, the state government will have the power to decide on the opening of the on-site registrations depending on the local context. Meanwhile, the private COVID vaccination centres shall have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments. 

While fully reserved sessions can be organised for providing services to the beneficiaries belonging to the facilitated cohorts, the Centre advised the states to exercise abundant caution while opening up on-site registration to avoid overcrowding. At present, Rajasthan (13,17,060) has vaccinated the most number of people in the 18-44 category followed by Bihar (12,27,279) and Uttar Pradesh (10,70,642). However, Maharashtra which otherwise tops the list in terms of the overall number of vaccinations has only managed to inoculate 7,06,853 persons in this age group. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

From May 1 onwards, the Centre relaxed the age bar for COVID-19 inoculation and allowed the vaccine manufacturers to supply 50 per cent of its doses to state governments and in the open market. While some states managed to commence the vaccination for the 18-44 age category, the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka have suspended this drive owing to a paucity of doses. Special emphasis has been laid on those aged above 45 who are waiting for the second dose of the vaccine.

A total of 15,14,50,539 persons have been inoculated in India whereas 4,17,98,519 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. The Union government has asserted that over 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August and December. This includes COVISHIELD (75 crore doses), COVAXIN (55 crore doses), Bio E Sub Vaccine (30 crore doses), Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine (5 crore doses), SII-Novavax (20 crore doses), BB Nasal Vaccine (10 crore doses), Genova mRNA vaccine (6 crore doses) and Sputnik V (15.6 crore doses).