The coronavirus that causes COVID 19 infection originated in Wuhan china in late 2019. It is a new virus to a human being, so our antibodies exactly don’t know how to deal with it. It is well assumed that the virus jumped from animal to human somewhere in Wuhan. It is a highly contagious virus and the severity of the disease caused by it mainly depends on the patient’s immune response against the virus. A person with high comorbidities is required to take certain precautions as the disease may cause severe illness or sometimes death. Last year the most trending topic on the internet was COVID 19 vaccine.
Experts proclaimed that developing an effective vaccine requires huge investment and years. But the new year came with the launch of two vaccines for people above 60 years of age. Until a few days ago, there were two vaccines available for public covishield (manufactured by Serum Institute of India and developed by oxford university) and covaxin (developed by Bharat BioTech with Indian Council of Medical Association). But now the government of India has provided the license to the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. Dr. Reddy will handle the manufacturing and distribution network of the vaccine. Now, we will get to know about the process to register for vaccination in detail.
Things You Will Need To Register For Covid-19 Vaccine
Any individual can get register for the vaccination. There are some important things to keep in mind before registering for vaccination. The person must possess citizenship of India. There are numerous identification document options available on the official registration of vaccination. An individual can introduce any of these documents to get the vaccination. The government has made the process of registration simpler and easier to help the citizens. People can easily get the vaccine even though they lack primary identification documents. The documents listed by the government of India on the CoWin portal are as follows.
- Aadhar Card.
- Driving License.
- Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour.
- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Job Card.
- Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs.
- PAN Card.
- Passbooks issued by Bank/Post Office.
- Passport.
- Pension Document.
- Service Identity Card with photograph issued to employees by Central/ State Govt./ PSUs/Public Limited Companies.
- Voter ID.
- Smart card issued by RGI under NPR.
Any of the above-mentioned can be produced at the time of registration or vaccination. These terms must have to be followed while registering for the vaccination.
- One must keep in mind that the above-mentioned documents must have a photo of the individual. A document without the photograph will be considered invalid.
- The document produced at the time of registration; the same document must be produced at the time of vaccination. This criterion will also apply while receiving the second dose of vaccine.
How To Register For 18+ Vaccine Using Cowin.gov.in
Cowin website is officially managed by the ministry of health and family welfare. These are the steps for 18+ vaccine using Cowin.gov.in
- Open the browser of smartphone or laptop and enter Cowin.gov.in in the search panel of the browser.
- A new window will appear where the user will see a lot of options.
- The user needs to Go to register/sign to complete the registration process.
- This option is at the top right corner of the cowin website while accessing from a desktop browser.
- Now the user needs to enter his/her mobile number.
- An OTP will be sent by the Cowin site, enter the received digits at the OTP section on the website.
- After entering the OTP click on the verify button.
- A new page will appear on the Cowin portal. It will be “Register Member”.
- On this page, the user needs to enter various details like ID proof (mainly ID proof number), name of the user, gender, year of birth.
- After filling in all the necessary details, click on the register option.
- If all the details entered by the user are correct, the registration process will complete automatically.
- After completing the registration process, the user will see the option to schedule an appointment for vaccination.
- The user needs to click on the “schedule” button, it is situated adjacent to the Name of the registered user. Users can also add four more beneficiaries from his/her registration.
- Now the user needs to enter his/her area pin code. Area pin code is required to check the nearby vaccination centers. After entering the area pin code click on the search button next to it.
- Various nearby vaccination centers will appear on the screen. The vaccination centers results will be based on the pin code entered by the user.
- If you see any GREEN numbers, then that number of vaccines is available at that particular location. Otherwise, you will see BOOKED label.
- Now the user needs to opt for a date and time of vaccination according to the preference. After opting for date and time click on the schedule now and confirm to finalize the appointment. The date and time of the vaccination will be finalized.
How To Register For 18+ Vaccine Using Aarogya Setu
- Open the Aarogya setu app on the smartphone. If the user doesn’t have the app then he/she must download the app from the play store and complete the registration process.
- On the Aarogya Setu app, the user will see the vaccination option on the top. Click on the “Vaccination Tab”.
- A new window will appear on the app, on this window user will need to enter his/her mobile number.
- An OTP will be sent to the number to complete the registration process. Enter the received OTP in the app to complete the process.
- A new window will appear on the Aarogya setu app, here the user needs to enter various details like ID proof (mainly ID proof number), name of the user, gender, year of birth.
- After filling in all the necessary details, click on the register option. If all the details entered by the user are correct, the registration process will complete automatically.
- After completing the registration process, the user will see the option to schedule an appointment for vaccination. The user needs to click on the “Schedule Vaccination” button.
- Now the user needs to enter his/her area pin code. Area pin code is required to check the nearby vaccination centers.
- After entering the area pin code click on the search button next to it. Various nearby vaccination centers will appear on the screen.
- The vaccination centers results will be based on the pin code entered by the user.
- Choose a preferred vaccination center and click on proceed.
- After opting for a preferred vaccination center, the user needs to opt for a date and time of vaccination according to the preference.
- After opting for date and time click on “confirm” for finalizing the appointment. The date and time of the vaccination will be finalized.
FAQs: Covid-19 Vaccine Registration For Above 18 Years
Can I Get Vaccination Without Appointment?
You can’t get a vaccination without registration. An individual needs to register on the official or from the Aarogya setu app to get the Vaccine jab. After the registration and scheduling date and time of the appointment, you can get the vaccine. One more thing is, you need to be on time for the appointment or else you will miss the dose of your vaccine.
While in some areas where people are not proficient enough to follow the registration process. They can go to the nearby health care centers to get themselves register for the vaccination. In rural areas, people can simply go to the nearby health care centers and register themselves. The health care operators will schedule the date and time of the appointment.
Are There Any Charges For Vaccination?
At government healthcare centers and government vaccination camps, all the available vaccines are free. You don’t need to pay to get a vaccine from government health care centers. Although, from private hospitals and private medical firms, rates of vaccination have been fixed by the government. Rates of available vaccines are different. Different vaccine rates can be obtained from the Cowin portal. Although paid vaccines are not yet available in some states. Availability of the vaccine depends upon the vaccination drive of a particular state. Metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi are providing paid vaccination services. India is facing a vaccine crisis, and because of it, people are facing trouble while scheduling and appointing the date of vaccination. But this is temporary. Several vaccines will soon be available in bulk.
Can I Choose The Type of Vaccine I Want To Get?
While registering on the Cowin portal or Aarogya setu, an individual can opt for a vaccine from the available options. In India, two vaccines are mainly in use. These are covishield and covaxin. Anyone who is going for vaccination or scheduling for vaccination can opt for either of them. Although owing to stock and availability, covaxin vaccines are in limited numbers. The user can face a little difficulty while choosing covaxin because of its limited production and stock. Other new vaccines are on their way to be available in India. Russia’s sputnik V is the third vaccine that has been registered by the government of India. Sputnik V will be available soon in India. The price of the new vaccine has been fixed and it can be checked on the Cowin portal.
If I Am Covid-19 Positive, Can I Get A Vaccine?
You need to wait for a while to get the vaccine if you are covid-19 positive. An individual who is Covid positive will have to wait for at least fourteen days after getting infected by the covid-19 virus or wait for the Covid symptoms to subside. Don’t rush to get the vaccine if you are positive. It may cause negative effects and you will also infect other people while going to the vaccination center. After getting positive of Covid-19, people must be careful towards themselves and their family members. Isolation is the best way to protect themselves as well as family members. After getting the negative results of covid-19, the user can get the jab of the vaccine from the nearby vaccine center.
Is Vaccination Free At All Vaccination Centres?
Vaccination is free at the government-authorized vaccination centers. An individual can get a vaccine from authorized vaccination centers without paying any amount. Only private medical centers and hospitals will charge a fixed amount (as specified by the government of India) to an individual for the vaccination. Covishield and covaxin are two vaccines, which are available at different government health care centers and government hospitals. Users can take a vaccine from these vaccination centers without any charges.
Final Words
No doubt vaccines available in India are effective against the virus. But in a country of 1.37 billion population, it requires time and investment to reach herd immunity. Till today, about 184 million doses have been administered, out of which only 40.7 million people have been administered both doses. As per scientific research, 80 percent of people need to be fully vaccinated to reach herd immunity. To reach that threshold in such a time when there is a dearth of vaccine is next to impossible. But the government of India has said that at the end of the year India will have a stock of more than 2 billion vaccines and nearly 8 to 9 types of vaccines will be available for public use.
The vaccine will be the best protection against the coronavirus. As the vaccines are well tested and gone through various trials, data shows that after full vaccination people are at less risk of severe illness. But vaccines are not the throughout the solution, there are cases of breakthrough infection, where people who have been administered both jabs of vaccine got infected, and some of them even died. The best precaution against the deadly virus is wearing a mask, maintaining social distance (of around 6 feet from other people), regular hand wash, or use of alcohol bases hand sanitizer. Avoid going out if not necessary, especially in a crowded area, where the risk of transmission is very high. Right now all we need is patience, history is the proof that the deadly pandemics and plagues came and go and COVID 19 will also have to go not suddenly but certainly.
