New Delhi/Mumbai 2^nd March 2021

 

“More than 1.48 Crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. These include more than 67 lakh Healthcare workers who got the first dose and around 26 lakh HCW who got the second dose.” Health Secretary, Shri Rajesh Bhushan presented the above update on COVID Vaccination during the weekly COVID briefing at National Media Centre in New Delhi today.

Chairperson, Empowered Group of COVID Vaccination, Shri R S Sharma spoke about the change in approach being adopted in the world’s largest vaccination drive. “It is a demand –driven approach than a supply driven approach which was adopted during the vaccination of HCW and FLW. Those interested in getting vaccinated should come forward and register themselves. Essentially since yesterday we have set a framework for the citizens where one can register voluntarily on Aarogya Setu App (which has an extension for Co-Win) or straight away register on Co-Win portal https://www.cowin.gov.in/

He also explained the step-by-step procedure in registering for the vaccine.

• Enter your mobile number – enter the OTP received – a dashboard will pop up where you can register for vaccination and you can opt for up to four people.
• Citizens can also schedule an appointment – where one can choose from a list of hospitals based on one’s location. The hospital chosen will show the time slot of vacancies available for vaccine administration.

There is also flexibility to choose different time slot for different members i.e. reservation can be made for all the four members together or on different dates based on their convenience

“There is also flexibility to change, cancel and reschedule reservation for the jab. Once you take the first jab, the second jab is also scheduled automatically at the same place where you take the first jab. This is because at one place/hospital only one type of vaccine is being used,” he added

The site also has a provision to change the place of the second jab ensuring the fact that the newly opted hospital gives the same vaccine as per your first jab. “At the supply side the hospital publishes its time table (like that of train reservation) and public can make reservations against those slots,” said Shri Sharma

Speaking about the minimal documentation involved in this vaccination drive he mentioned that people above 60 years need to submit only one document that proves their identity and age; and for people between 45 and 60 years and who has a condition of comorbidity, a certificate from a registered practitioner is all is needed extra which will be uploaded on the system.

He also pointed out that how every detail of vaccination is recorded in real time at the backend with details of which person - what vaccine - when and by whom the vaccine was administered.

On receiving the second dose, everyone gets a final certificate which will be given as a printout with digital signature. “This will be put in your Aarrogya Setu app and also in your DigiLocker for the convenience of the end user”, he mentioned.

The Chairperson also spoke regarding the complaints about glitches in the system. “This happened since people were trying to use some app that looked similar to that of Co-Win. However, it has been clarified that there are no such apps for vaccination. People can straightaway register through Aarogya Setu app or Co-Win website. There were no glitches in the system. We have been watching it closely and we are aware of the fact that the portal has to be hugely scalable. There is no issue on the scalability of the portal as such,” he stated. He also mentioned that every step is taken to ensure smooth functioning of the portal which may have one sixth of the world population register for vaccination. “More than 50 lakhs registration has already been done on Co-Win website; this number is expected to increase to more than 1 Crore,” he added.

Speaking about the data security of the portal he said, “The number of transactions will be large and also at the same time the data has to be safe, secure and free from cyber-attacks. We are taking care of the best security practices and we want to ensure that the citizen’s data is safe. We are asking only for name, gender and age. We are not collecting even addresses.”

It was informed that the State Governments are coordinating with the hospitals and supply of vaccines is happening through them. “We are encouraging them to enroll more and more private sector hospitals. At the moment the total number of hospitals involved is around 27,000; 12,500 are private hospitals; 11,000 are Ayushman Bharat empanelled hospitals, 800 – CGHS. States like Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana and Odisha which have their own insurance schemes instead of CGHS have been encouraged to enroll those hospitals that provide such schemes” said Shri. Sharma.

Health Secretary, Shri Rajesh Bhushan presented a PPT with the following updates on COVID cases in the country during the briefing

1. Overall Case positivity is 5.11 % and has shown a significant decline in the last week with a 2.01%.
2. More than 1.07 Cr (1,07,98,921) people has recovered so far. 12,464 patients have recovered and got discharged in the last 24 hours. India’s Recovery Rate is at 97.08% and continues to be amongst the highest in the world.
3. The country’s present active caseload now consists of 1.51% of total positive cases.

“Although certain states in the country are seeing a surge in the number of active cases the fact remains that the recovered cases are more than 97% and active cases are still less than 2 %”, said Shri Bhushan.

PPT presented by the Health Secretary can be accessed here.

DM/DL/PM

 

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