Thiruvananthapuram: COVID-19 vaccination will be administered only to those who have registered on the CoWin portal (www.cowin.gov.in) from Thursday, the State Department of Health said after ending the spot registration facility.
The spot registration was cancelled after people flouted COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and overcrowded the vaccination centres, which often saw tempers running high.
Prior online registration will now be required for getting the token for both the doses of the vaccine, according to the guidelines issued on Wednesday.
The guidelines have also set a slew of measure for the inoculation drive:
• Government departments, Akshaya centres, voluntary organizations should initiate district-level measures to enable the advance registration of those in priority list.
• District collectors should ensure prior scheduling of vaccination sessions based on the availability of the vaccine in government and private vaccination centres
• Announcements should be made based on the availability of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines at the centres after making arrangements for administering them.
• COVID-19 protocol should be strictly enforced at the centres
• Those aged 45 and above should be vaccinated with the first and the second doses in a time-bound manner
Meanwhile, the State is expected to receive 5.50 lakh doses of the vaccine by Thursday night. Thiruvananthapuram will get 2.50 lakh doses, while Kochi and Kozhikode will receive 1.50 lakh each. Kerala had asked the Centre for 50 lakh doses of the immunization drug.
The State's amended guidelines for isolation/quarantine has mandated room quarantine of 14 days for primary contacts. If asymptomatic, they should undergo the RT-PCR test on the eighth day, but should continue in quarantine for seven more days, even if their samples test negative.
