Covid-19 vaccination for senior citizens next week; check eligibility, how to register

Senior citizens to get COVID-19 vaccines from next week! India has recently declared the next phase of Coronavirus vaccination drive where people above the age of 60 years along with those above 45 years of age having comorbid conditions will be given vaccines. The drive is expected to start next week ( March 1, 2021) where according to the government’s estimates, more than 27 crore people will be taken in account for vaccination. While as many as 10,000 government facilities have been shortlisted for this, the vaccine shots will also be given to people at private hospitals. It is to note that all beneficiaries getting Covid-19 vaccine shots from private hospitals will have to pay the cost for it and the amount will be decided in the next two-three days.

Beneficiaries will have to register themselves by downloading the Co-win app 2.0. Within the application, beneficiaries will have to enter either their election ID number or Aadhaar number. This is expected to serve as a proof for their eligibility and age. Rest data will be pulled in the back-end using the identification number. After the data matches the age, the application will upload more information.

Notably, the government has not revealed the criteria for those with comorbidities. But people with diseases including kidney failure, cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes along hypertension are expected to be added in the beneficiary list.

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If there are any problems with the age, the District Magistrate has an option to cross-verify the beneficiary’s age claims and the latest age will be updated after the verification process is done. Once the data is matched on the app, vaccination centres along with geo-coordinates will be displayed. Beneficiaries can then choose a site as well as the date for vaccination. The choice will be given depending on the availability of slots. Apart from this, beneficiaries also have the choice to get vaccinated in any state of the country.