CoWIN portal reconfigured to show 12-16 weeks gap between Covishield vaccine jabs, know why

New Delhi:  The Centre on Sunday (May 16) announced that the CoWIN digital portal for COVID-19 vaccination registration has been reconfigured to reflect the extension of interval between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks.

The Central government has communicated this change to States and UTs. There have been reports that people who had pre-booked their appointment for the second dose in less than 84 days on CoWIN are being turned back from vaccination centres without getting the second dose of Covishield.

"It is clarified that the requisite changes have now been done in the CoWIN digital portal. As a result, further online or on-site appointments will not be possible if the period after the first dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days. Additionally, already booked online appointments for the second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by CoWIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of 1st dose vaccination," said the government.

The COVID Working Group chaired by Dr NK Arora had recommended extension of the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks.

This was accepted by the Government of India on May 13. The Union Government has reiterated to the States and UTs that the online appointments booked for the second dose of Covishield prior to this change of the interval between the two doses of Covishield, must be honoured.

The Union Health Ministry has 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.

They have also been advised to undertake awareness activities to inform the beneficiaries about this change.

(With inputs from PTI)