Frontline health workers not allowed to register for coronavirus vaccine
New Delhi : Frontline medical and healthcare workers will no more be able to register for the coronavirus vaccine, announced Health Ministry on Saturday. It said that the decision has been taken to ensure a large category of people can get the vaccine.
The health ministry mentioned that they found some ineligible people misusing the opportunity to get vaccinated and violate the guidelines.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday announced that those who are above 45 years and wish to get vaccinated must register through CoWIN website and asked states and Union Territories to ensure quick vaccination of healthcare and frontline medical workers who have already registered.
The vaccination in India began in January; health workers and doctors were among the first ones to get the priority during vaccination.
"All efforts have been made in close collaboration with states/UTs to saturate vaccination for HCWs and FLWs. While tracking the progress, the timeline for completing vaccination of all HCWs and FLWs with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine has been extended multiple times and was elapsed since these timelines and even after starting vaccination of population above 60 years, provision was made to register and vaccinate HCWs and FLWs with a view to ensure optimum coverage," the Health Secretary said in the letter, referring to healthcare workers (HCW) and frontline medical workers (FLW).
"Various inputs have been received from different sources that in some of the CVCs (Covid 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... It has been decided that no fresh registrations in categories of HCWs and FLWs will be allowed with immediate effect," the Health Secretary said.
So far 7.44 crore vaccine doses have been used across the country, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. These include 89,53,552 HCWs who have taken the first dose and 53,06,671 HCWs who have taken the second dose; 96,19,289 FLWs who have received the first dose and 40,18,526 FLWs who have taken the second dose.
4,57,78,875 and 7,65,354 people over 45 years old have been vaccinated with the first and second dose, respectively.
Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases is also increasing rapidly in the nation. More than 80,000 new cases are being registered from past couple of days.
