Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 15: Amidst reports that over 60 per cent of the India population do not have access to smart phones or not digital literate to book online vaccination registration, the centre on Tuesday announced introduction of walk-in inoculation.
The government announced that anyone above the age of 18 could walk in to the nearest vaccination centre to get registered on the CoWIN digital platform and be inoculated against COVID-19.
The union health ministry announcement said it was not mandatory to pre-register online or book an appointment to get the vaccine as the government sought to increase the pace of vaccinations and tackle the ‘vaccine hesitancy’ it has blamed for the slow rollout of vaccines in parts of the country, including rural areas.
Last week the government stated that vaccine hesitancy was a “globally accepted phenomenon and should be addressed by scientifically studying the issue at the community level”. It said it was sharing a ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Strategy’ with state/UT governments.
The government said facilitated registration through the Common Service Centers (CSCs) on Co-Win is one of the many modes of registration. The facilitators, like health workers or ASHAs, mobilise beneficiaries in rural areas and urban slums for on-site registration and vaccination directly at the nearest center.
The facility for assisted registrations via the 1075 helpline has also been operationalized.
These modes have been specifically made functional for rural areas to enable equitable access to vaccination against Covid-19, the government said.
Two incidents last week, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, had bought to the notice of the government the extreme cases of “vaccine hesitancy” in the rural and tribal-dominated areas. In the incident in UP, an elderly woman hid behind a drum to dodge a vaccination team while in MP a vaccination team was attacked by villagers.
Vaccine hesitancy has also been blamed for the poor rate of vaccination in Tamil Nadu which despite having one of the better healthcare systems was lying among the bottom five in terms of vaccinations.
Experts believe vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group – the country’s largest demographic – is key to being able to lift restrictions and try and re-start economic and commercial activities.
The government, however, claimed that more walk-in vaccinations were happening in tribal districts in comparison to the national average. The vaccination per million population in the tribal areas was also higher than the national average, the government claimed.
Referring to the statistics, the government said, it “bust the myth/misconception about the rural-urban divide as the CoWIN portal offers a completely flexible and inclusive framework for facilitating vaccination recording in rural areas, and especially in the remotest parts of the country.”
On the positive side, the country continued to show fast receding trend in the daily infection rates. India recorded fewer than 61,000 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours till Tuesday morning, the lowest daily figure since March 31. The declining trend in daily new cases – that number remained below the one lakh-mark for an eighth straight day today – suggests the second wave has peaked.
The government, however, has been urged to increase the rate of vaccination in anticipation of what many believe is an inevitable third wave, which could strike within the year.
Nearly 26 crore doses of vaccines have been administered in India so far, but the seven-day average dipped to around 13 lakh per day last month – when the second wave was at its worst. It has risen dramatically since – to a seven-day average of over 31 lakh per day – but it needs to be much higher, experts say, to ensure a significant percentage of the vulnerable population is protected from the virus and its growing (and more aggressive) mutations.
Of the total 28.36 crore beneficiaries registered on CoWIN, 16.45 crore or 58 per cent have been registered in the on-site mode, as of June 13. Additionally, of the total 24.84 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses recorded on CoWIN, 19.84 crore doses or nearly 80% of all vaccine doses have been administered through walk-in, as on June 13, the government added.
As per the official data, the ratio of walk-in to online registration vaccination stands at 81:19.
At present only around 3.3 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated and around 11 per cent has received one dose. The government, which has been criticised for its national vaccination policy, has claimed to have prepared a blueprint to inoculate all eligible people – around 108 crore – by the end of the current year.