TUESDAY, MAY 07, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The online registration for vaccination of age between 18-44 years received good response as all the four-slots of the day, from May 15-18, across 35 government centers, being fully booked.
The State government will begin the drive to vaccinate those between 18-44 years of age from Sunday. The beneficiaries will be administered Covishield vaccine free of cost.
The registration was done via a two applications, namely CoWin portal and Aarogya Setu app. Several, however complaint that they could not get the appointments, as all the slots were booked within few minutes of its opening at 12.00pm.
When contacted, State Immunisation officer Dr Rajendra Borkar said that 110 beneficiaries per day were only allowed. "We opened slot till May 18 across 35 government centers. All the slots are fully booked for now," he said.
Borkar informed that the doses, free of cost, will be administered from Saturday onwards. "Only those who have taken online appointments will be allowed to take vaccine jab," he explained.
State government has received 32,870 doses of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India for Immunisation of 18-45 years age group. The government had placed order for five lakh doses.
Borkar informed that the Union Health Ministry has issued fresh guideline to the states informing that the gap between 1st and 2nd dose of COVISHIELD vaccine should be 12-16 weeks compared to earlier period of 8 weeks.
This is applicable only to Covishield and not Covaxin, he said.
The Manipal Hospital is currently administering Covaxin to the age group of 18-45 years at a cost of Rs 1,350 per dose. Nearly 1500 adults have already taken their first jab.
