India opens COVID-19 vaccine registration for people aged 18-44 years, over 20 states to provide it free
DHARAMSALA 28 April: India today opened COVID-19 vaccine registration for people aged between 18 and 44 years as it flagged off its largest vaccination drive.
Under phase 3 of India’s vaccination drive, registration for everyone above 18 years of age will “begin on http://cowin.gov.in, Aarogya Setu App & UMANG App at 4 pm on 28th April,” read a tweet from the official MyGovIndia account.
The ID’s accepted for the registration includes aadhar card, driving license, pan card, passport and pension cards.
However, shortly after the registration went live, the overwhelming response it generated caused a load on the server and the Cowin link on the Aarogya Setu app crashed soon after.
It is estimated that the total population of 18-44-year-old age-group in India accounts for 594.6 million people, the Hindustan Times reported citing New Delhi’s Technical Group on Population Projections.
So far the vaccination is only open for the frontline workers and those above 45 years of age in India, though the vaccine for them are provided free of cost by the Indian government, for those between 18-44 years of age, the Centre left them on their own to get it from either state governments or to incur the cost of vaccination from private hospitals.
However as India reels under the second wave of the deadly COVID-19, so far, over 20 states, (Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan, Gujrat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.) have announced that they will provide the vaccines free to their people.
The Himachal government announced last week, following a cabinet meeting that it will provide Covid-19 vaccine frees for people between 18 to 44 years across the government health institutions.
