The Centre today said that online appointments, already booked for the second dose of the Covishield vaccine, will remain valid and the same will not be cancelled on Co-WIN platform. Requisite changes have now been made on the CoWIN digital portal, making online or on-site appointments for Covishield vaccine not possible if the period after first dose for a beneficiary is less than 84 days, it announced.
The Centre in a media release said, "already booked online appointments for 2nd dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by COWIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of 1st dose vaccination."
The Union Government reiterated to the states and UTs that the online appointments booked for 2nd dose of COVISHELD prior to this change of the interval between the two doses of Covishield, must be honoured. It has advised the state govts to instruct the field staff that if such beneficiaries do come for vaccination, the second Covishield dose must be administered and they must not be turned away. They have also been advised to undertake awareness activities to inform the beneficiaries about this change.
On May 13, the had extended the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks based on the recommendations by a panel chaired by Dr N.K. Arora.
Besides, more than 1.84 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and UTs, while nearly 51 lakh doses are in the pipeline and will be received by them within the next three days, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The Centre has so far provided more than 20 crore vaccine doses (20,28,09,250) to states and UTs free of cost, it said. Of this, the total consumption, calculated based on average up to May 14, including wastages, is 18,43,67,772 doses, according to data available at 7 pm on Saturday.
