COVID-19 Vaccination Guidelines in India: No Fresh Registrations of Healthcare, Frontline Workers Across the Country; Govt Tells States

New Delhi, April 4: The Centre on Saturday has written to all states and Union territories to not permit any fresh registrations of healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) with immediate effect.

This has been done on recommendation by the National Expert Group for Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) based on inputs that some ineligible beneficiaries were getting their names enlisted for vaccination against COVID-19, under this category, in violation of prescribed guidelines, the Union Health Ministry said. and as per the NEGVAC recommendation, no fresh registrations in categories of HCWs and FLWs will be allowed for COVID-19 vaccination with immediate effect. COVID-19 Vaccination in India: Centre Asks States, UTs Not To Allow Fresh Registration of Healthcare Workers for Inoculation.

A letter written by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, to state governments and accessed by ANI said: "Various inputs have been received from different sources that in some of the CVCs (vaccination centres), some ineligible beneficiaries are being registered as HCWs and FLWs and are getting vaccinated in complete violation of the prescribed guidelines.

"There has been 24 per cent increase in HCW database in the past few days. This issue was discussed with State representatives and domain knowledge experts in the NEGVAC meeting today i.e. 03/04/2021, and as per the recommendation of NEGVAC, it has been decided that no fresh registrations in categories of HCWs and FLWs will be allowed with immediate effect," the letter said.

Registrations of persons aged 45 years and above will continue to be permitted on CoWIN portal, the health secretary said. However, universal vaccination of already registered HCWs and FLWs should be ensured at the earliest, he said.

Bhushan in his letter said that even though the government had extended multiple times before finally fixing a deadline of February 25 for HCWs and March 6 for FLWs to register for the first dose of vaccination, the registrations had never stopped.

"All efforts have been made in close collaboration with States/UTs to saturate vaccination of HCWs and FLWs. While tracking the progress, the timeline for completing vaccination of all HCWs and FL Ws with 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine has been extended multiple times and was finally fixed at 25th February 2021 for HCWs and 6th March 2021 for FLWs. Around one month has elapsed since these timelines and even after starting vaccination of population above 60 years of age, provision was made to register and vaccinate HCWs and FL Ws with a view to ensure optimal coverage," the letter stated.

Over 13 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered till 8 pm on Saturday on the 78th day of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in India. These include 89,53,552 health care workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 53,06,671 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 96,19,289 frontline workers (FLWs) first dose, 40,18,526 FLWs (2nd dose), 4,57,78,875 for more than 45 years old (1st dose) and 7,65,354 for more than 45 years old (2nd dose).

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