Registration For COVID-19 Vaccine Only Through Co-Win Website, Not App

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare took to Twitter to clarify that citizens above the age of 60 and those above the age of 45 living with the eligible co-morbidities have to use the Co-Win 2.0 website for registration for the COVID-19 vaccine (https://www.cowin.gov.in/home) and not the Co-Win application available on play stores.

The Ministry decided to issue this clarification after receiving several complaints about the same. In all of its previous communication, the Ministry has called it the Co-Win 2.0 portal but never clarified that the application cannot be used to register for the vaccine.

Beginning March 1, the government opened its vaccination centers for the 27 crore senior citizens it intends to vaccinate in the country.

The government had stated that people could either pre-register on the Co-Win 2.0 portal or the Arogya Setu application or could walk in to the centers for receiving a shot.

On Twitter, there were several complaints about the portal not generating a slot after self-registration, or not generating an OTP. At the NESCO center in Mumbai, people had already lined up to receive a vaccination slot but were made to wait.

People between the age of 45-60 have to get a certificate signed by their medical practitioner that says that they are suffering from any of the listed 20 co-morbidities. Furthermore, the COVID-19 vaccine is available at government centers for free while people going to the private hospitals will have to pay ₹250 for each dose. Both the approved vaccines currently require two doses.