A number of people who became eligible for their Covid precaution doses after the Centre tweaked a key requirement are yet to receive a message from CoWIN informing them that their third shot is due.
As a result, many of them are unable to determine whether they can take their precaution dose now. Several private hospitals are also getting queries from people who want to know whether they can take the third dose even if they have not received any text message from CoWIN, a digital Covid vaccination platform run by the Centre.
The health ministry had on July 6 reduced the gap between the second and booster or precaution dose of Covid vaccines from nine to six months.
Those who are aged between 18 and 59 can take the third dose only at private centres, paying Rs 340. Senior citizens can take the shot at government hospitals and vaccination centres for free.
“I took my second dose in November and would have been eligible for the precaution dose in August. Thanks to the Centre’s announcement, I am now eligible for the booster. But I am yet to receive any text message,” said a content creator in his mid-30s.
“I hope I will be administered the precaution dose when I show my vaccination certificate at the centre.”
A college teacher, who, too, took her second dose in November, made the same complaint.
R.S. Sharma, chief executive officer of the National Health Authority, which manages CoWIN, told The Telegraph that the platform was sending messages to those who have become eligible for their precaution doses. “We have not stopped sending messages,” he said.
Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital, said almost everyone who became eligible for the precaution dose after the tweak in the criterion were turning up for the shot without any text message from CoWIN.
“They are asking whether we will vaccinate them without the message. We are telling them that we will.”
West Bengal health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam said on Tuesday that he would inquire why some people were not getting the message.
The administration of the precaution dose, he said, has picked up significantly over the last few days. “Earlier, we were giving 20,000 to 30,000 precaution doses daily across the state. The number then picked up to 50,000 and has now almost touched 70,000,” he said.