Over one million citizens have registered themselves on the Co-WIN portal till 1 pm on Monday, the Union health ministry said as India opened up vaccination for those over 60 years and within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specified co-morbidities.
As the registration on the www.cowin.gov.in opened up at 9 am on Monday, people took to social media to flag glitches in the registration system.
The ministry in the afternoon also clarified that the Co-WIN app on Play Store is meant for use only by the administrators, and that registration and booking for appointment for COVID-19 vaccination has to be done through the portal www.cowin.gov.in.
"Registration and booking for appointment for #COVID19 vaccination is to be done through #CoWIN Portal:www.cowin.gov.in.
"There is no #CoWIN App for beneficiary registration. The App on Play Store is for administrators only," the ministry tweeted.
Vaccines provided to beneficiaries at the government health facilities will be entirely free of cost, while private facilities cannot charge the beneficiary a sum above Rs 250 per person per dose (Rs 150 for vaccines and Rs 100 as operational charges).
Citizens can register and book an appointment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the Co-WIN 2.0 portal www.cowin.gov.in or through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu.
There is also a walk-in provision for the beneficiaries to get themselves registered at the nearby session site to get vaccinated.
The eligible beneficiaries can choose the centre of their choice and book an appointment based on the slots available.
All citizens that are aged, or will attain the age of 60 or more as on January 1, 2022, are eligible to register, in addition to all such citizens that are aged or will attain the age of 45 years to 59 years as on January 1, 2022, and have any of the specified 20 co-morbidities.
Citizens can register at the Co-WIN portal through their mobile number, said the ministry as it also released a user manual to handhold the citizens to register and schedule an appointment for vaccination, according to a guidance document issued by ministry.
A one-time password verification will be done prior to registration to ensure veracity of the mobile number and after registration, an account will be created on Co-WIN for the person.
The person can access (login) account on Co-WIN using the mobile phone number used at the time of registration. Features for adding beneficiaries, editing their details and for booking appointment(s) will be available in the citizen's account, the document stated.
The citizen can delete only beneficiaries as have been added by him/her.
"If one out of the four beneficiaries registered in an account is vaccinated, only three registrations are left, and so on.
"Till the time of vaccination, all the records of registration and appointment can be edited/deleted by the person making the registration. Only when a person gets vaccinated, the record is locked and cannot be edited/deleted," the document stated.
A beneficiary then has to select the ID card type and provide ID card number.
The photo ID card number for each such beneficiary must be different. Either of the following photo identity documents can be used by citizens for availing of online registration -- Aadhaar card/letter, electoral photo identity card, passport, driving license, PAN Card, NPR smart card or pension document with a photograph.
If the age of the beneficiary is from 45 to 59 years, the beneficiary will be prompted to confirm if he/she has any specified co-morbidity. In such cases, the beneficiary will also be advised to bring the co-morbidity certificate signed by a Registered Medical Practitioner.
Once all the necessary details are recorded by the beneficiary, registration is completed and an acknowledgement (registration slip/token) will be sent to beneficiary on his registered mobile number.
