New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday (May 16) introduced that the CoWIN digital portal for COVID-19 vaccination registration has been reconfigured to mirror the extension of interval between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks.
The Central authorities has communicated this transformation to States and UTs. There have been reviews that individuals who had pre-booked their appointment for the second dose in lower than 84 days on CoWIN are being turned again from vaccination centres with out getting the second dose of Covishield.
“It is clarified that the requisite changes have now been done in the CoWIN digital portal. As a result, further online or on-site appointments will not be possible if the period after the first dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days. Additionally, already booked online appointments for the second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by CoWIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of 1st dose vaccination,” mentioned the federal government.
The COVID Working Group chaired by Dr NK Arora had really useful extension of the gap between the primary and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks.
This was accepted by the Government of India on May 13. The Union Government has reiterated to the States and UTs that the net appointments booked for the second dose of Covishield prior to this transformation of the interval between the 2 doses of Covishield, should be honoured.
The Union Health Ministry has suggested the States/UTs that the sector workers could also be instructed that, if such beneficiaries do come for vaccination, the second Covishield dose should be administered they usually should not be turned away.
They have additionally been suggested to undertake consciousness actions to inform the beneficiaries about this transformation.
(With inputs from PTI)
