The union’s health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, said on Saturday that illegible beneficiaries are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine in the category of frontline and healthcare workers. Bhushan ordered all states and territories in the Union to immediately stop new registrations in the two categories on the CoWIN portal.
“Several supplies have been received from different sources that in some of the CVCs (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” the letter said.
According to Bhushan’s letter to the states, there was a 24% increase in the database of health workers in the “last days” on the portal.
The decision was made after a meeting of the National Group of Experts on the Administration of Vaccines for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) on Saturday.
Read also: Covid-19 vaccination campaign: more than 1.3 million doses administered on Saturday
The Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which began on January 16, aimed to immunize in a staggered manner 300 million health workers, front-line workers, older than 50 years with comorbidities. The first to receive the vaccines were 10 million health workers. The campaign opened to 20 million frontline workers as of February 1. People over the age of 60 and those between the age group of 45 and 59 with a combination of 20 specific comorbidities began receiving their vaccinations as of March 1. to everyone over 45 as of April 1.
The vaccination campaign for all health workers was to end on February 25 and for frontline workers on March 6. Registrations were closed as the campaign was coming to an end. It was later reopened once vaccination for the elderly and people with comorbidities began in March to vaccinate front-line and healthcare workers who were unable to be vaccinated previously.
Although no new registrations will be produced for the two categories on the government’s CoWIN portal, those who are already registered but have not yet been injected can still be vaccinated. “Universal vaccination of already registered healthcare workers and front-line workers must be ensured as soon as possible,” Bhushan’s letter read.
As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise in the country, experts are calling for the vaccination campaign to be open to all people over 18 years of age.
“We should quickly vaccinate as many people over the age of 18 as possible. There is still a large proportion of the susceptible population that leads to the second wave of infection. So far, we have immunized around 7 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 pulmonology at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
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