Overcrowding of beneficiaries at Covid -19 vaccination centres has prompted authorities to expand its attain beyond the government and private facilities empanelled below the Central scheme. The Centre directed the state to make use of all private hospitals for providing Covid vaccination apart from the empanelled ones. Over 50 lakh eligible beneficiaries have currently registered for the jab.
The hospitals can also extend their vaccination sessions beyond 5 pm to cater to all the enrollments in a day. The centre has asked state hospitals to vaccinate beneficiaries or at least 15 days a month. Registration by means of the Co-WIN portal now will only locate you a slot with a week’s waiting time.
Initially, the government designated about 600 private hospitals below the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), and State Health Insurance and 10,000 private hospitals empanelled below Ayushman Bharat, as vaccination centres.
However, owing to the big quantity of enrollments, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, more than a meeting with Dr Ram S Sharma, chairman of the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration decided to all private hospitals to serve as vaccination centres. However, the Centre mandated that these hospitals require to make sure that they have a enough quantity of vaccinators, sufficient space for observation and a cold chain management facility for the vaccine vails.
With 50 lakh registration carried out on Co-win, the centre assumes that at least 1 crore beneficiaries are lined up for vaccination. Talking about the glitches on the initially day of registration, the Health Secretary mentioned that not an app known as Co-WIN but the Aarogya Setu is the suitable spot to register. The centre is additional seeking to resolve technical glitches and make the information hack-proof from any cyber-attack.
Moreover, the ICMR Chief Dr Balram Bhargava cleared doubts about the suitability of vaccine for patients below blood thinner medication. Bhargava mentioned that the vaccine is secure for these making use of blood thinners, but these making use of anti-coagulants can quit their medication for 1-2 days just before and soon after taking the vaccination as that can clot the injection internet site. There is no contraindication either connected to anti-coagulants or anti-platelets, he additional informed.
The centre has informed states that there is no shortage of Covid-19 vaccine and it really should not resort to storing, reserving or generating a buffer stock for vaccines at the state or district level.
Five states and Union Territories i.e. Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Lakshadweep and Gujarat have administered the initially dose of Covid-19 vaccine to one hundred per cent of healthcare workers.