Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Friday issued new guidelines for administering the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination.
According to the new guidelines, priority will be given to those due for a second dose while scheduling a session at a Covid vaccine centre (CVC). The second dose of Covishield is to be administered between 6-8 weeks and that of Covaxin at 4-6 weeks after first dose.
The list of beneficiaries due for second dose at each centre can be accessed from the CoWIN portal. These beneficiaries shall be mobilised with the help of Asha workers and other staff at the local bodies and vaccinated after adding them to the session through spot allotment.
Only slots available after catering to second dose beneficiaries will be published online for booking. In order to avoid overcrowding at a CVC, each beneficiary will be given a date and time slot for vaccination.
The guidelines have also mentioned that due care must be taken to provide separate counters for the elderly and people with disabilities.
In addition, it clarifies that private CVCs will have to procure their vaccine supply from the manufacturers and not from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's supply.
The new notification comes as many beneficiaries due for the second dose were unable to get an online appointment to complete the schedule due to limited stocks and increased booking for the first dose.
Almost 80 lakh people in the 18 to 45 age group registered for the first dose of the vaccine in the first three hours after the CoWIN portal opened. The vaccine will be administered to this age category from May 1.
Though the server crashed when the registration opened, approximately 27 lakh people registered in a minute when the website was back on, authorities informed. The availability of slots will be dependent on the state government and private hospitals.
