February 26, 2021: The eligible beneficiaries who are entitled to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from March 1, would be able to register themselves on the CO-WIN platform from Monday onwards.

The Central government has created the Co-WIN application dedicated to monitor real time management of COVID-19 vaccination across the country.

India is going start its third phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities against the coronavirus from March 1, the Central government has announced on Thursday.

"There are several procedures wherein beneficiaries can get registered themselves for vaccine. The beneficiary would be able to register themselves on the CO-WIN platform from Monday itself," Chairman of Empowered Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Administration R S Sharma told ANI.

"First, there will be a walk-in provision for the entitled beneficiary to get themselves register at the vaccination site for the vaccine. At the session site, volunteers would help beneficiaries who would have difficulty in registration," Sharma said.

"Secondly, the newer version of the CO-WIN platform has been enhanced with GPS facility. The beneficiaries can select the option to suitable vaccination session site (both at government and private hospital," said Sharma adding that the beneficiary will have to use their mobile number for registration.

"During registration, the beneficiary will receive OTP on their mobile number that will help in creating the account on CO-WIN. Beneficiaries will have to present all the necessary documents while registration. One can even get their family members also registered on the account," Sharma said.

"Third, the beneficiaries can also make registration on CO-WIN application through government's Arogya Setu Application," he said.

India is going start its second phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities against the coronavirus from March 1, the Central government has announced on Thursday.

"From March 1, people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated at 10,000 governmnet and over 20,000 private vaccination centres. The vaccine will be given free of cost at government centres," the Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

"Those who want to get vaccinated from private hospitals will have to pay. The amount they would need to pay will be decided by the health ministry within 3-4 days as they are in discussion with manufacturers and hospitals," stated the minister.

India has two COVID-19 vaccine candidates-- Covishield and COVAXIN which has received emergency use authorisation from the national drugs regulator.

The Central government launched the biggest vaccination drive on 16 January by first inoculating healthcare workers in the first phase and frontline line workers in the ongoing second phase respectively.

"More than 1.30 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far. No case of serious/severe AEFI/Death is attributable to vaccination till date," as per the union health ministry.