PUNJAB GEARS UP TO START SECOND PHASE OF COVID-19 VACCINATION

With the prioritisation as guided by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), the next phase of vaccination is due for citizens of age appropriate categories, including initially the people above 60 years of age and those aged from 45 years to 60 years and have the co-morbidities.

Disclosing this here on Friday, state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that all such citizens that are aged, or will attain the age of 45 years to 59 years as on 1 January 2022, and have any of the specified co-morbidities, which have been recommended by NEGVAC and approved by Government of India from time to time, subject to certification to that effect by a Registered Medical Practitioner.

Sidhu added that to augment and simplify the process of registration vaccination, the MoHFW is coming with COWIN 2.0, based on the feedback received during the implementation of Phase-1 of Covid-19 vaccination drive. He said that citizens will be able to register and book an appointment for vaccination using the COWIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as ArogyaSetu etc.

He said that this new portal would prove helpful to expedite the vaccination drive especially to be conducted for aged people.

The Minister said that as per World Health Organization, Covid-19 vaccination is the single way out to deal with pandemic so that eligible beneficiaries have to take maximum benefit of this golden opportunity.

Divulging about the free and paid services, he said that vaccination will be provided free of charge at the government health facilities and will be on payment basis in the private health facilities, at a rate as may be decided by the Government of India from time to time.