No fresh registrations of healthcare workers for COVID vaccination allowed: Centre

New Delhi: No fresh registrations of healthcare and frontline workers for COVID-19 vaccination will be allowed from now on, the Health Ministry said today.

In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that some ineligible beneficiaries in this category were getting their names enlisted for vaccination against COVID-19 in violation of rules.

Bhushan further said registration of persons aged 45 years and above will continue to be permitted on Co-WIN portal, and asked the states/UTs to ensure universal vaccination of already registered healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) at the earliest.

The pan-India vaccination drive was kick-started on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated and the vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2.

The next phase of the drive commenced from March 1 for those over 60 years of age and for people above 45 years of age with specified co-morbid conditions. On Thursday, the third phase of the drive started in the country in which those above the age of 45 are eligible for vaccine against the coronavirus disease.

‘Efforts made to saturate vaccination of healthcare, frontline workers’

Bhushan said all efforts have been made in close collaboration with states and UTs to saturate vaccination of HCWs and FLWs.

“While tracking the progress, timeline for completing vaccination of all HCWs and FLWs with first dose of COVID-19 vaccine has been extended multiple times and was finally fixed at February 25 for HCWs and March 6 for FLWs,” he stated in the letter.

Around one month has elapsed since these timelines and even after starting the vaccination of the population above 60 years, provision was made to register and vaccinate HCWs and FLWs with a view to ensure optimal coverage, he underscored.

“Various inputs have been received from different sources that in some of the COVID-19 vaccination centres (CVCs), some ineligible beneficiaries are being registered as HCWs and FLWs and are getting vaccinated in complete violation of the prescribed guidelines,” Bhushan said.

“This issue was discussed with state representatives and domain knowledge experts in the NEGVAC meeting today, and as per the recommendation of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), it has been decided that no fresh registrations in categories of HCWs and FLWs will be allowed with immediate effect. Registrations of persons aged 45 years and above will continue to be permitted on CoWIN portal,” the letter read.

He urged the states and UTs to direct the officials concerned for wider dissemination of the policy decision for compliance.