COVID-19 Vaccine Latest Update India: Get a Covid-19 jab near your home; Who all are eligible? check full details here

COVID-19 Vaccine Latest Update India: The fight against COVID-19 pandemic is a common fight. Everyone, from older people to children are fighting this battle against the pandemic in their own way. Recently, the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) has made a proposal that will provide some relief for the elderly and differently abled citizens. Now, the eligible population can go for COVID-19 vaccination to centres near their home.

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A Technical Expert Committee of the Union Ministry on the guidelines for Near to Home COVID Vaccination Centres (NHCVC) for Elderly and Differently Abled Citizens has recommended a proposal to the NEGVAC which has been accepted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As per the proposal, the NHCVC would follow a community-based, flexible and people-centric approach, bringing the COVID Vaccination Centres nearer to homes for the elderly and the differently abled citizens.

The Technical Expert Committee’s recommendations are aimed to ensure vaccination of senior citizens and differently abled population having limited mobility due to their physical condition as per the press release from Ministry of Health. It must be noted that these near home vaccination centres will be organised for the following eligible population while the other age groups will continue at the existing CVCs:

1) All individuals above 60 years of age with no vaccination or first dose vaccination

2) All individuals below 60 years with disability due to physical or medical conditions

For the NHCVCs, a community-based approach will be followed where sessions can be conducted in non-health facility-based settings and are nearer to home, for instance, in a community centre, RWA centre/office, panchayat ghar, school buildings, old age homes etc. 

Based on the cohort of eligible population, District Task Force (DTF) / Urban Task Force (UTF) will decide the location of NHCVC to maximize the reach of services to the target population, reduce vaccine wastage along with causing minimal impact on the existing health services.

The site for NHCVC will be pre-identified in collaboration with community groups and RWAs and after identification and verification for meeting CVC criteria, all such sites will be registered on the CoWIN portal as NHCVC.

The Union Ministry of Health has communicated the detailed guidelines to all the states and the union territories.
It must be remembered that India began the COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16, 2021, with two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin. The second phase vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with comorbidities started from March 1, 2021. The third phase began from April 1, 2021, for all those above 45 years of age. In the next phase, that began from May 1, 2021, all above 18 years of age were included for the COVID-19 vaccination.