Keep a fixed window on CoWIN for daily booking of vaccination slots: Centre to states

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday asked states to keep a fixed window on CoWIN for publishing the Covid vaccination schedule everyday so that it will be easier for people to see availability and book appointments more conveniently.

The instruction comes amid complaints that there is no uniformity in publishing the slots available at vaccination centres which means that people have to spend a lot of time looking for available slots every day.

In a meeting on the progress of Covid inoculation drive in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also said that private hospitals should not allow offline vaccine registration and all registrations should be online and should follow the SOPs shared by the Centre.

Private hospitals were also advised to publish adequately longer schedules of vaccination in terms of days rather than single-day calendars to ensure that there is no overcrowding at the vaccination centres and the process of booking appointments on CoWIN is also hassle-free.

It was also clarified that industrial organisations and corporate entities that don’t have a hospital are required to tie up with a private hospital.

While states have been urged repeatedly to keep vaccine wastage below 1%, in many states such as Jharkhand (37.3%), Chhattisgarh (30.2%), Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8%), Madhya Pradesh (10.7%), the wastage is above acceptable limits, the Union health ministry highlighted.

Bhushan also asked states to make complete use of the available flexibilities on CoWIN to enhance pace of vaccination drive.

States, for instance, have been asked to plan for scaling up of vaccination coverage through available stocks and anticipated supplies till June end, with an assurance of the visibility of anticipated supplies of each tranche with expected date of delivery up till June 15 for the central quota supply and till June 30 for state quota supply.

It was also suggested that states should form a 2 or 3-member dedicated team to regularly coordinate with vaccine manufacturers for timely supplies of vaccine through state and private hospital quotas.

States were also directed to prepare and quickly implement decentralized communication strategy to address vaccine hesitancy in rural, tribal or hard-to-reach areas.

“Lactating women amongst health care workers and front-line workers who have not received vaccination are to be prioritized for vaccination,” the Centre said.