New Delhi: The Union well being ministry on Sunday (May 16) clarified that already booked online appointments for the second dose of Covishield vaccine will stay legitimate and the identical will not be cancelled on the Co-WIN platform.
It additionally talked about that requisite adjustments have now been carried out within the Co-WIN digital portal, on account of which additional online or on-site appointments will not be doable if the interval after first dose date for a beneficiary is lower than 84 days.
The Centre had on May 13 prolonged the hole between the primary and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks based mostly on the suggestions by the COVID Working Group chaired by N Ok Arora.
“The Government of India has communicated this change to states and UTs. The Co-WIN digital portal has also been reconfigured to reflect this extension of interval for two doses of Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) to 12-16 weeks,” the ministry stated, in keeping with information company PTI.
“However, there have been reviews in a bit of the media suggesting that individuals who had pre-booked their appointments for the second dose in lower than 84 days on Co-WIN are being turned again from vaccination centres with out getting the second dose of Covishield,” it stated.
“Additionally, already booked online appointments for second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by Co-WIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of first dose of vaccination,” the ministry added.
The Centre has reiterated to the states/UTs that online appointments booked for second dose of Covishield previous to this modification of the interval between the 2 doses of Covishield, should be honoured.
It suggested the states/UTs that the sphere employees might be instructed that, if such beneficiaries do come for vaccination, “the second Covishield dose must be administered and they must not be turned away.”
They have additionally been requested to undertake consciousness actions to tell the beneficiaries about this modification.
