Money9 Edit | Vaccine strategy: Avoid walk-in, register on CoWin

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From April 1, all Indians over 45 years of age will be eligible for their first Covid-19 vaccination shots. Data from the government’s CoWIN portal dashboard suggests that in Phase-2, a meagre 14% of the eligible population pre-scheduled their vaccination visits. The rest of them walked in. That phase consisted of all above 45 with comorbidities and everyone above 60 years. In the upcoming phase, we are looking at a much larger number of eligible citizens.

The problem with walk-ins, even though the government allows it, is that it serves no advantage. The vaccination centres will find it difficult to manage large and volatile crowds at one level.

At another level, demand forecasting for stocking up enough vaccines will be challenging for centres. Moreover, the centres may not be able to serve all walk-ins as they strive to honour pre-scheduled commitments.

For citizens who opt to walk in, the wait will be longer and the guarantee of getting a shot on that visit is virtually absent. This will then lead to speculations around vaccine unavailability and process mismanagement — eventually leading to community angst.

As citizens, we must help the system help us. We owe it to the frontline workers administering the vaccines to us, by ensuring they are not stretched further beyond their call of duty to cater to our ad-hoc walk-in attitude. They have enough on their hands already.

Last and most importantly, Covid-19 is best prevented through social distancing. Large crowds at vaccine centres will do just the opposite. Queues, constrained seating, and constant movement in the corridors of hospitals will lead to more risk of contacting Covid, rather than eliminating it though vaccines.

Getting vaccinated must be top priority for all eligible citizens and there is no room for vaccine hesitancy. But hesitancy to adopt technology and processes to ease the vaccination process also has no room.