The Union Health Ministry has said that ownership of a mobile phone is not a prerequisite for COVID-19 vaccination and production of address proof for availing vaccination is not mandatory.
In a release issued on Wednesday, the Ministry said it was also not mandatory to pre-register online on Co-WIN for availing vaccination.
“For easy understanding of users, Co-Win is now available in 12 languages. These include Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Gurumukhi (Punjabi) and English,” said the Ministry.
The Ministry said the Co-WIN platform was an inclusive IT system that provided a flexible framework with all the necessary features to facilitate coverage in the remotest parts of the country as well as for those who were most vulnerable.
“While one of the nine identity cards, including Aadhaar, Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC), ration card with photo and disability ID card, is required for availing of vaccination, special provisions have been made by Central Government for organising vaccination sessions for those who may not have any of the nine specified identity cards or own a mobile phone,” noted the release.
Taking full benefit of such provisions, more than 2 lakh such beneficiaries have been vaccinated, so far.
Near-to-home vaccination centre services for the elderly and persons with disability were also being provided. On May 27, the Union government had issued an advisory for near-to-home vaccination centre services for the elderly and those with disability.
For those who may not have access to Internet or a smart phone or even to a mobile phone, free of cost on-site registration (popularly called walk-in) and vaccination was available at all government vaccination centres.
Eighty percentage of all doses have so far been administered in the on-site vaccination mode. In on-site vaccination, all the data recording for registration, vaccination and generation of certificates was done by the vaccinator and the beneficiary himself/herself is only required to provide the basic minimum necessary information.
“Furthermore, COVID-19 vaccination coverage is found to be better in tribal districts than the national averages. Data also shows that more than 70% of vaccination centres are located in rural areas, including more than 26,000 at the Primary Health Centres and 26,000 at the sub-health centres,” the Ministry stated.