Centre to begin COVID-19 vaccination for people above 45 today, know how to register

Over 6.43 crore coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered across India since the COVID-19 vaccination drive started on January 16, 2021.

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday (April 1, 2021) will start giving COVID-19 vaccine jabs to people above 45 years of age. The announcement on the same was made on March 23 by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across India. Javadekar had urged all the eligible people to immediately register and get vaccinated.

The first phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive in India had kicked off on January 16, 2021, in which the healthcare workers and the frontline workers were vaccinated. Keeping in view its pace of giving vaccine jabs, the Centre then extended the vaccination to people above 60 years and to individuals above 45 years of age with comorbidities.

Know how to register for COVID-19 vaccination: 

1. To register, the eligible person will have to log into the Co-WIN portal using the link www.cowin.gov.in.

2. Then click on the 'Register/Sign In Yourself' tab to register.

3. An eligible person can also register for COVID-19 vaccination through the Aarogya Setu App.

4. You can register for the Co-WIN portal using any of the following ID proofs:

a. Aadhaar card

b. Driving License

c. PAN card

d. Passport

e. Pension Passbook

f. NPR Smart Card

g. Voter ID Card (EPIC)

Earlier on Wednesday, Rajesh Bhushan, the Union Health Secretary chaired a high-level meeting with all states and UTs to review the status, pace and issues regarding the COVID-19 vaccination. The meeting also focussed on the preparations for the third phase of the vaccination. 

As of Wednesday evening, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) stated that over 6.43 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across India.

The MoHFW said, "These include 82,47,288 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 52,38,705 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 91,34,627 FLWs (1st dose), 39,23,172 FLWs (2nd dose), 3,00,39,599 1st dose beneficiaries and 86,869 2nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 76,74,934 (1st dose) and 13,571 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.

The vaccination will start a day after India witnessed 53,480 new COVID-19 infections, of which, 84.73% were recorded from eight states. India's total COVID-19 active count on Wednesday soared to 5.52 lakh, whereas the death toll was increased by 354 to 1,62,468.