The Union Health Ministry said on Monday that on-site registration and appointment has now been enabled for the 18-44 years age group on the CoWIN platform for COVID-19 vaccination, however, this feature is being enabled only for government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs) at present, it said.

This feature will not be available for private Vaccination Centers and they will have to publish their vaccination schedules exclusively with slots for online appointments. This feature will be used only upon the decision of respective states and UT governments.

States and UT must decide on the opening of on-site registrations/facilitated cohorts' registration and appointments for 18-44 years age group based on the local context just as an additional measure to minimise vaccine wastage and for facilitating vaccination of eligible beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years, the ministry said in its statement.

The coverage of vaccination was expanded to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years on May 1 with the implementation of the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy. The facility of only online appointment mode initially to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years helped to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres, the statement.

The ministry has further advised states and Union Territories that abundant caution should be exercised and extreme due care should be taken while opening up on-site registration and appointment for 18-44 years age group, in order to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centres, the statement said.

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