The Health Ministry on Saturday halted new registrations of healthcare and frontline workers to receive coronavirus vaccines, citing a barrage of registrations of ineligible people in these categories in recent days at centers across the country.
New registrations will now not be accepted for people in these two categories, who did not have an age bar, but healthcare and frontline workers who have already signed up can take doses.
“Several supplies have been received from different sources that in some of the CVC (Covid Vaccination Centers) some ineligible beneficiaries are being registered as health workers and frontline workers and are being vaccinated in total violation of the prescribed guidelines” said a letter from the Union. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to the states informing of the change in the registration process.
Bhushan said there was a 24% increase in the database of healthcare workers in the “last days”. The decision was made after discussion at a meeting of the National Group of Experts on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) on Saturday.
The announcement came just hours after Uttarakhand’s prime minister said that journalists of all ages in the state will be eligible for vaccinations as front-line workers. “During the ongoing pandemic, journalists in the state worked as front-line workers to bring the required information to people about Covid-19, which significantly helped the government,” Tirath Singh Rawat said.
The Ludhiana administration announced a similar decision, which classified judges, teachers and journalists as front-line workers.
Experts and doctors have previously said that registrations in these categories may not be infallible, as there is no verification mechanism to determine the profession of those who register.
The vaccination campaign, which began on January 16, was meant to first immunize 300 million people who fall into three categories: healthcare workers, frontline workers, and those most at risk from Covid-19 due to their age. or existing medical conditions.
The first to receive the vaccines were 10 million healthcare workers and the campaign was opened to 20 million frontline workers from February 1 onwards. On March 1, the government allowed people over the age of 60 and those between the ages of 45 and 59 with a combination of 20 specific comorbidities to take the vaccines.
On April 1, the government relaxed it further to allow anyone over the age of 45 to take the dose, but experts have repeatedly said the campaign should be opened to anyone looking for a vaccine to stay ahead of the second wave of infections. .
“We should quickly vaccinate as many people over the age of 18 as we can. There is still a large proportion of the susceptible population that is giving rise to the second wave of infection. So far, we have immunized around 7 million rupees (70 million) people, which translates to around 5 to 6% of the population. With the AstraZeneca vaccine being 71% effective in preventing infections, we only have about 4% of the population protected. And most have not yet received the second dose of the vaccine, ”said Dr GC Khilnani, former director of the department of pulmonology at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi (AIIMS).
The vaccination campaign for healthcare workers was planned to end on February 25 and for frontline workers on March 6. Registries were briefly closed and then reopened once vaccination of the elderly and comorbidity began in March to ensure that all front-line and healthcare workers who had been left out were vaccinated.
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