Making a significant change in India's COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry announced that precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccines will be available to all aged above 18 years at private vaccination centres from April 10.
All those above the age of 18 who have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose will be eligible for the precaution dose, it said.
"It has been decided that the precaution dose of Covid vaccines will be made available to the 18-plus population group at private vaccination centres. This facility would be available at all private vaccination centres," the ministry said.
The third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which the government had termed a precaution dose was so far only available to those above the age of 60 and frontline health workers.
According to the Health Ministry, the ongoing free vaccination programme through government vaccination centres for the first and second dose to the eligible population as well as precaution dose to healthcare workers, frontline workers and 60+ population would continue and would be accelerated.
So far, about 96 per cent of all 15-plus population in the country have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while about 83 per cent have received both the doses, it stated.
More than 2.4 crore precaution doses have also been administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged above 60 years. Besides, 45 per cent of beneficiaries in the 12-14 years age group have also received the first dose, the ministry said.
Earlier, a new feature was introduced on CoWIN through which the vaccinated beneficiaries would be able to submit requests on Co-WIN for correction of vaccination date on vaccination certificates, if the date printed differs from the actual date of vaccine administration.?
This added feature will rule out inadvertent errors which may be due to delayed updation of vaccination records on Co-WIN.
This utility option is provided on the beneficiary's Co-WIN dashboard as 'Vaccination date correction', through which vaccination date can be corrected by uploading documentary proof on the correct date of vaccination, the government data said.
All such requests would be forwarded to the District Immunization Officer (DIO) of the respective districts, who would examine the matter and resolve the issue after which the beneficiary would be able to download the vaccination certificate with the correct date. This will also enable all those eligible beneficiaries to take/schedule precaution doses who were facing issues due to inadvertent and data entry errors.
"Co-WIN portal introduces feature to submit rectification request of vaccination date in the COVID-19 vaccination certificates in case the date printed differs from the actual date of vaccination," said Vikas Sheel, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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