News Analysis India

Tag: Aarogya Setu app

  • Registration for COVID vaccination on CoWIN for those above 18 to begin from April 28

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Registration for vaccination against COVID-19 for all those aged above 18 will begin on the CoWIN platform and Aarogya Setu app from April 28, officials said on Thursday.

    The inoculation process and documents to be submitted to get the jab remains the same.

    The central government had announced that the vaccination for those above 18 years will begin across the country from May 1 as part of the third phase of the inoculation drive.

    Certain modifications, including the age criteria and a few other features, have been done and the CoWIN platform is ready to meet the rising demand as is expected once the vaccination for all is opened up, an official said.

    From May 1, the present system of private COVID-19 vaccination centres receiving doses from the government and charging up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist and private hospitals will procure directly from vaccine manufacturers.

    According to the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy, COVID-19 vaccination will continue to be free for eligible population groups comprising healthcare workers, frontline workers and people above 45 years of age in government vaccination centres, which receive doses from the government of India.

    Vaccine manufacturers would make an advance declaration of the price for 50 per cent supply that would be available to state governments in the open market before May 1.

    Based on this price, states, private hospitals, industrial establishments may procure vaccine doses from manufacturers.

    Private hospitals would have to procure their supplies of COVID-19 vaccine exclusively from the 50 per cent supply earmarked for other than the government of India channel.

    “While the Centre has liberalised the vaccination policy, it does not mean that vaccines will be sold in pharmacists or chemist shops in the open market,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had clarified on Wednesday.

    The price charged for vaccination by private hospitals would be monitored, he said.

    “The present dispensation where private COVID vaccination centres receive doses from the government and can charge up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist,” the Union health ministry said.

    Vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 per cent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the government of India and would be free to supply the remaining 50 per cent doses to state governments and in the open market.

     For government of India vaccination centres, the eligible population would be the same, which exists today, that is healthcare workers (HCWs), frontline workers (FLWs) and population above 45 years of age.

    For other than the government of India channel, the eligibility would be all adult citizens of the country, the document said.

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    Vaccination against COVID-19 will continue to be free for eligible population groups in all those government COVID vaccination centres which receive vaccine doses from the central government.

    All vaccination (through government of India vaccination centres and other than the government of India channel) will be part of the National Vaccination Programme, will follow all existing guidelines, will be captured on the CoWIN platform along with the stocks and price per vaccination applicable in all vaccination centres, will comply with Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) management and reporting, digital vaccination certificate and all other prescribed norms.

    The division of vaccine supply, which would mean 50 per cent to the government of India and 50 per cent to other than the government of India channel would be applicable uniformly across for all vaccines manufactured in the country.

    However, the fully ready to use imported vaccine would be allowed to be utilised entirely in the other than government of India channel, it said.

    The Centre from its share will allocate vaccines to states and union territories based on the criteria of performance (speed of administration, average consumption), extent of infections (number of active COVID-19 cases), the document stated.

    Second dose of all existing priority groups i.e. HCWs, FLWs and people aged above 45, wherever it has become due, would be given priority, for which a specific and focused strategy would be communicated to all stakeholders.

    This policy would come into effect from May 1 and would be reviewed from time-to-time.

  • HC asks MEITY, CPIOs to reply to plea seeking details of Aarogya Setu app under RTI Act

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought the response of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and CPIOs of its various departments on a plea seeking details of the Aarogya Setu mobile application.

    The high court, which observed that the issue of Aarogya Setu application is of “public importance,” was hearing the plea also challenging the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order discharging show-cause notices against MEITY officers without hearing the complainant.

    The high court was of the prima facie view that the November 24, 2020 order of CIC was clearly passed without according hearing to the RTI activist who has filed a complaint with the commission after various government agencies failed to answer his RTI application seeking details of Aarogya Setu application which was launched on April 2, 2020, by the government, post the outbreak of COVID-19.

    Justice Prathiba M Singh issued notices and sought responses of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) of the ministry, National E-Governance Division (NeGD), Department of Electronics and eGov, and National Informatics Centre.

    The high court directed the counsel for petitioner and RTI activist Saurav Das and various agencies to place a chart setting out the information sought by him, provided to him and yet to be provided and listed the matter for further hearing on February 24.

    Das, who is also a journalist, in his plea, has sought to set aside the final order passed by CIC on November 24, 2020, dropping penal proceedings against the CPIOs of various agencies for obstructing access to public records relating to the Aarogya Setu app under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

    Advocate Vrinda Bhandari, representing the petitioner, sought a direction to the CIC to provide an opportunity to him to participate in the show cause/penalty proceedings so that he can demonstrate the inadequate, incomplete, and false representations made by the CPIOs of the departments regarding the information sought for being in the public domain.

    Advocate Rahul Sharma, representing the ministry and various CIPOs of its department, submitted that a substantial amount of information is already available in the public domain about the Aarogya Setu app and a large number of documents were placed before the CIC which led to the discharge of show-cause notices against the officers.

    The plea sought a direction to the CIC to conduct a fresh hearing under the provisions of the RTI Act after providing an adequate opportunity to the petitioner to be heard.

    It also sought to direct the CPIO of the Department of Electronics and eGov to provide the information sought by him in his August 1, 2020, RTI application.

    The journalist had filed multiple RTI applications seeking details pertaining to the creation of the government’s contract tracing app Aarogya Setu.

    When he did not receive any reply, he approached the CIC with his grievances.

    In October last year, he was told by the authorities that the information relating to Aarogya Setu was not held by their respective departments and the CIC had then issued show-cause notice to the CPIOs after hearing the petitioner’s submissions, as to why penalty under the RTI Act should not be imposed on them for not adequately answering the RTI application.

    The RTI application has sought several details regarding the making of the government’s contract tracing app Aarogya Setu and the people behind it.