Covishield second dose appointment booked already won't be cancelled: Govt
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, the Union health ministry on Sunday said.
Requisite changes, however, have now been done in the Co-WIN digital portal, as a result of which further online or on-site appointment booking will not be possible if the period after the first dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days.
"Already booked online appointments for the second dose will remain valid and are not being cancelled by Co-WIN. Beneficiaries may be advised through suitable IEC that they should reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of first dose vaccination," a notification by health ministry released on Sunday read.
As for pre-booked beneficiary who has already picked the second dose of vaccine even if the period for him/ her is less than 84 days, COWIN system will allow vaccination of such beneficiaries, the notification stated.
Earlier this week on May 13, the Centre had extended the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks based on the recommendations by the Covid Working Group chaired by N K Arora.
“The Government of India has communicated this change to states and UTs. The Co-WIN digital portal has also been reconfigured to reflect this extension of interval for two doses of Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) to 12-16 weeks,” the ministry said.
"However, there have been reports in a section of the media suggesting that people who had pre-booked their appointments for the second dose in less than 84 days on Co-WIN are being turned back from vaccination centres without getting the second dose of Covishield,” it said.
"Additionally, already booked online appointments for the second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by Co-WIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of the first dose of vaccination," the ministry added.
The Union government has reiterated to the states/UTs that online appointments booked for second dose of Covishield prior to this change of the interval between the two doses of Covishield, must be honoured.
It advised the states/UTs that the field staff may be instructed that, if such beneficiaries do come for vaccination, "the second Covishield dose must be administered and they must not be turned away".