New Delhi: The prescription of any registered medical practitioner certifying that a person has a disease would be sufficient to make a person eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccines at a government or private facility — once vaccinations start for people with comorbidities — ThePrint has learnt.
Each person from 1 March will be able to register upto three more members of their family for vaccinations.
About 11,000-12,000 private hospitals empanelled under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) will give out the vaccinations in the first stage. This is in addition to the government hospitals, where vaccines will be given free of cost.
Hospitals will have to publish their vaccination schedules ahead of time so that people have the option of choosing a place and slot of their preference.
“The prescription of any registered medical practitioner will be sufficient as documentary evidence that a person suffers from a particular comorbidity. But this will not need to be furnished at the time of registration,” Dr R.S. Sharma, CEO National Health Authority and head of the empowered group on Covid-19 vaccinations, told ThePrint.
“When registering through either the CoWIN website or a front-end app — like Aarogya Setu — people will only need to upload an identification document that has their name, age, gender and photo. The prescription will have to be submitted when they reach the centre. A photo will be taken and uploaded on the system,” Sharma added.
This is applicable only for people in the age bracket of 45 to 60 years.
According to the government’s vaccination guidelines, 12 photo identity documents, including Aadhaar, pension card and bank papers, have been listed for beneficiary identification, but there is no word on documents needed to prove one’s comorbidity.
Comorbidity is a disease such as diabetes, hypertension, regular use of immunosuppressive drugs, thyroid disorders etc. that make a person more vulnerable to adverse outcomes in case of a Covd-19 infection.
A committee formed for the purpose has submitted a report to the government on the “eligible” comorbidities, but a full list of these diseases is yet to come out officially.
Also read: India to vaccinate citizens above 60 years, comorbid patients above 45 from 1 March
PM-JAY, CGHS won’t cover vaccinations
Sharma said from 1 March, only those hospitals that are empanelled under the two government health programmes — PM-JAY, which is the tertiary care arm of the NDA dispensation’s flagship health programme Ayushman Bharat, and CGHS — will roll out vaccinations in the private sector.
However there is no plan to cover Covid-19 vaccinations under PM-JAY or CGHS.
Beneficiaries will have to pay whatever charges the government decides for the private sector from their own pocket. Neither of the schemes will reimburse it.
“From 1 March, we will involve private hospitals that are empanelled under PM-JAY and CGHS. Currently, about 11,000 hospitals are empanelled with the National Health Authority and another 500-odd with CGHS,” Sharma said.
“The government has decided as a matter of principle to authorise only these private sector hospitals to provide vaccinations. Every hospital in the vaccination drive will publish its timetable as to when and how many people it will be given the vaccine to,” Sharma added.
How to register
A beneficiary, who is trying to enroll for vaccination, will be able to view all the hospitals and the vaccination schedule when he goes to the designated portal of the app.
They can register using their mobile number and an OTP that will be sent on it.
“Every person can register three more members of their family. These four people can take the shot at different time slots based on their convenience and do not have to reach the centre together. Once registration has happened, they will get a SMS reminder from us,” he added.
Also read: Who all will get vaccines free? When will they hit stores? 4 Covid questions on every mind