Registration for the 'precaution dose' of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with co-morbidities started on the CoWIN portal on Saturday evening, January 8. The exercise of administering the precaution dose to these categories of beneficiaries will begin from January 10.

Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), Vikas Sheel on Saturday said in a tweet, "The feature for online appointments for precaution dose for HCWs/FLWs and Citizens (60+) is now live on Co-WIN. To book an appointment, please visit http://cowin.gov.in". There is no need for new registration of those taking the precautionary dose and they can directly take an appointment from Saturday or walk-in, the Union Health Ministry had said.

All those aged 60 years and above with co-morbidities will not be required to produce or submit any certificate from their doctor at the time of administration of the precaution dose, the Union government informed states and UnionTerritories recently. The beneficiaries are expected to obtain the advice of their doctor before deciding to avail of the precaution dose or third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the personnel to be deployed for election duty in poll-bound states will also be included in the category of frontline workers (FLWs).

Eligibility of such beneficiaries for the precaution dose will be based on the date of administration of the second dose as recorded in the Co-WIN system (completion of 9 months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of second dose), according to the guidelines issued by the ministry. CoWIN will send reminder messages to all those eligible for the precaution dose and the dose will be reflected in the digital vaccination certificates.

More than 2 crore (2,27,33,154) first doses of the vaccine have been administered to adolescents in the 15-18 age group taking the total doses administered to over 151.47 crore on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.