Owaisi welcomes Centre's relaxation on walk-in vaccination; demands scrapping of CoWIN

Welcoming the changes in vaccine policy, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday, reiterated his demand of doing away with CoWin app - the Centre's vaccination slot registration website. Citing the digital divide in India, he quoted the Supreme Court observing that CoWIN prevented a majority of Indians from getting vaccinated. He also hailed the Centre's decision to allow walk-in registration at vaccination centres as per states' wishes.

Owaisi hails Centre's decision to allow walk-in vaccinations

On May 24, Centre decided to allow the walk-in vaccination for the 18-44 age group at government COVID vaccination centres. Considering scenarios where people required assistance in booking slots and those without access to the internet or smartphones or mobile phones may have limited access for vaccination, Centre empowered the state government to decide on the opening of the on-site registrations depending on the local context. The on-site registration has been kept enabled on the CoWIN app and private COVID vaccination centres have been told to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments.

Centre takes over vaccination

On Monday,  PM Modi stated that from June 21 all persons above the age of 18 years will be provided with free COVID-19 vaccines across the country. Taking over procurement from the states, Centre will now account for 75% vaccine rollout and provide these free to the States for inoculation.  Only 25% will be available for private players, with a Rs 150 cap on the service charge they may apply.

Moreover, the Centre will consider a number of factors such as a state's population ratio, case severity, and the present number of vaccines available with the state before allocating a set number of Coronavirus vaccines to them.  A higher vaccine wastage ratio would negatively affect the vaccine allocation to the states. States have been asked to allocate the doses well in advance to districts and vaccination centres and put the information in the public domain so as to disseminate it among the local population.

In order to incentivise vaccine manufacturing, domestic vaccine manufacturers have been given the option to provide vaccines directly to private hospitals which will be restricted to 25% of their monthly production. Additionally, to promote the spirit of 'Lok Kalyan', the use of non-transferable electronic vouchers would be available at private vaccination centres and would help people financially support vaccination for economically weaker sections. The States/UTs have been allowed to decide their own prioritization factoring in vaccine supply schedule, as per the guidelines.