The Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation's decentralised COVID-19 vaccination camps now face uncertainty as no spot registration can be allowed as per the new inoculation protocols. Those who want to get vaccinated are required to get appointments to their nearest hospitals or centralised vaccination facility through CoWin application, the nodal site for coordinating the vaccine drive.
The civic body has been running its vaccination camps in a decentralised manner in different sets of wards each day, with registration carried out on the spot. Though this arrangement had worked well for the Corporation, it had led to issues regarding crowd control in some other places, leading the government to take a shift towards the prior registration process. Since the camps are held in different locations each day, the inclusion of the centres in the CoWin application is not practical.
Though a consignment of 2.5 lakh doses has been allocated for the Thiruvananthapuram region consisting of four districts on Thursday, it was not clear until late on Friday night whether the Corporation would be getting a share. The confusion regarding the spot registration process has also led to an uncertainty regarding the camps. Considering the current situation, the Corporation was unlikely to organise any decentralised camp this weekend.
The Corporation had till Wednesday organised decentralised vaccination camps in around 40 wards over two weeks. The civic body had opened decentralised camps in wards to reduce the rush at the centralised vaccination venues such as the Jimmy George stadium. With camps set up in an auditorium or a Corporation building in each ward, people could get vaccinated without travelling far from their neighbourhood. There is a demand from councillors and the public from various wards to organise camps in their locality.
