No More Vaccine Registration For Healthcare & Frontline Workers: Centre

New Delhi: The government won’t permit fresh registration for COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare and frontline workers.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to the state chief secretaries that the Health and Family Welfare Ministry had received reports about some vaccination centres registering ineligible beneficiaries as healthcare (HCW) and frontline workers (FLW) and getting them vaccinated.

“There has been a 24 per cent increase in HCW database in the past few days,” Bhushan mentioned in his letter.

Health ministry officials, after discussing the matter with state representatives on April 3, decided that no fresh registration will be allowed under the two categories.

The letter clarified that registration for those aged 45 years and above will continue on the CoWin portal.

India kicked off the world’s biggest vaccination drive on January 16 with healthcare workers. It was extended to frontline workers from February 2. March 1 onwards, senior citizens and those above 45 with co-morbidities were eligible to take the vaccine. The third phase began on April 1 for those aged 45 and above, without having to show certificates with co-morbidities.