The Centre on Wednesday (February 24) announced that the country will begin on March 1 the second phase of vaccination of the next priority group: persons above the age of 60 years, as well as those above the age of 45 years with associated comorbidities. The Centre has estimated that this priority group is approximately around 27 crore strong. The government has decided that at around 10,000 government facilities, the vaccination will be free of cost; however, at private hospitals, beneficiaries will have to pay for vaccination. The Health Ministry is expected to announce the cost at private hospitals in the next two-three days. How do you register for vaccination? The second phase will have a system of self-registration. The beneficiary will have to download the Co-win app 2.0, and register for vaccination. What documents will be required for registration? To prove your age eligibility, the beneficiary will either need an election ID card or an Aadhaar. The beneficiary will have to download the Co-win app and register; the back-end will fetch the data from two sources: Aadhaar and electoral roll. Only after the data on the ages matches, will the app upload any further information. Who will be under the category of co-morbid population? The criteria for comorbidity have not been announced by the Centre yet. However, those suffering from serious comorbidities, including cancer, kidney failure, cardiovascular, diabetes, and hypertension are likely to be included in the list. My last updated electoral roll shows that I'm less than 50 years of age? How do I change it? The District Magistrate will have an option to cross-verify your age claims against your last electoral roll data. After the verification by the DM, the latest age will be updated. Will I have a choice of choosing the date and place of vaccination? Yes. Once the Co-win app matches the data on the age, the app will display vaccination centres and geo-coordinates. The beneficiary can choose a site; they will also get the option to choose a date. Therefore, based on the availability of slots, the beneficiary can decide the place and time for vaccination. Can a person having an electoral roll from one state can get vaccinated in another? Yes. The government will provide the option to the beneficiary to get vaccinated in any state of the country. For instance, a person from Uttar Pradesh working in, say, Karnataka, can get vaccinated in the latter state.
