Nagaland starts registration for 2nd cycle of 18-44 age group vaccination

May 19, 2021 37 Views No Comment

Slots for 4 districts already booked or open before official announcement

Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 19

Registration of prospective beneficiaries for the 2nd cycle of COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 18-44 years will kick-off on May 19 at 9:00 am on the CoWIN portal and Aarogya Setu app, the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare (DOHFW) announced on Tuesday.

Scheduled on May 24 and 25, a total of 13400 doses are slated to be administrated in the 2nd cycle.

The portal for registration will be activated at 9:00 am on May 19, though the slots for Kohima, Mon and Longleng are already booked, stated a DOHFW press release on May 18.

However, there were considerable concerns over the fairness of the process among prospective beneficiaries particularly in Kohima over the filing of the slots for the next cycle without any public announcement.

When The Morung Express checked the Aarogya Setu app after being informed about the same on Monday evening, the slots at all COVID-19 vaccination centres (CVCs) in Kohima were shown to be fully booked, while slots in others districts were yet to be opened.

On May 18, before the DOHFW’s schedule was made public, data on COVID portal showed that slots were either fully booked or already opened in four districts – Longleng, Kiphire, Longleng and Mon.

Altogether there were 4300 slots allotted to the four districts – Kohima (1500), Mon (1400), Longleng (800) and Kiphire (600), as per the DOHFW release on Tuesday.

In other districts, it was shown as NA (not available) or “No Vaccination center is available for booking.”

At least vaccination process should be done in a transparent manner and filing of slots without any public information is unfair and biased, a resident opined on Tuesday.

The fact that vaccination slots in Kohima and two other districts are already booked even though the booking process is supposed to start at 9:00 am on May 19 all over Nagaland is a perfect example of state of governance, society and polity in Nagaland, argued another concerned young citizen.

It shows the extent to which nepotism is blatantly practiced in the State, he maintained. “There is little or no equity in access to resources as those who are poor and have no connections are being left out unfairly, in favour of those with connections and the powers that be.”

Calling the practice totally “unfair” which would not have been possible in any other society or State, he said that public should voice out against such blatant violation of their right to a fair process of vaccination so that it is not repeated in the future.

When contacted for the reason behind the same, a health official on Monday said the bookings were ‘real’ without elaborating further as to why the slots were opened in advance without any formal announcement.

However, the DOHFW’s release on Tuesday did inform that the portal for all districts for each cycle, starting May 19, will be open every Wednesday at 9:00 am for the 18-44 years age group. It must be noted here that every Monday and Tuesday have been reserved for vaccination of the age group at designated CVCs.

Meanwhile, DOHFW’s release informed that the vaccination on May 24 and 25 will be held across the State in 49 session sites on first day and 56 on the second day.

The session capacity for first day is 6350 and second day is 7050 for a total capacity of 13400.

District-wise, the maximum slot is given to Dimapur with a total of 2200 doses – 1200 for each day. Kohima (1500) came next, followed by Mon (1400), , though the slots are already booked for both districts.

It must be mentioned that the 1st cycle of vaccination for the 18-44 age group was held on May 17 and 18 and a total of 7,450 doses were scheduled to be administrated.

According to the DOHFW, a total of 3029 were administrated the doses on May 17 out of 3700 targeted.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-starts-registration-for-2nd-cycle-of-18-44-age-group-vaccination