Chennai: The Central government said it will let people choose their coronavirus vaccination centres when the campaign expands next week, effectively letting beneficiaries pick either a home-grown shot or the AstraZeneca one, unlike now.
The country is halting vaccinations this weekend to upgrade software used to coordinate its campaign, as it prepares to widen coverage beyond the 11.5 million health and front-line workers immunised since January 16. But the inoculation campaign has progressed slower than expected due to a reluctance of health and front-line workers to take the home-grown Covaxin shot that was approved without late-stage efficacy data.
Only 11 per cent of vaccinated people have opted for the product developed by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research. With the world’s highest tally of infections after the United States, the country wants to vaccinate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people by August.
The decision to give people a choice of vaccines could now speed up the roll-out, officials believe.
“The fundamental shift in this phase is that citizens in the identified age groups, as also those healthcare workers and frontline who have been missed out or left out of the present phase of vaccination, can select vaccination centres of their choice,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
From Monday, the government will start covering people aged 60 and those over 45 with medical conditions.
They can register through the government’s Co-Win 2.0 portal or walk into vaccination centres; states will also actively mobilise people.