The Centre on Saturday said that healthcare and other frontline workers can no longer register themselves on the government portal for gett...

The Centre on Saturday said that healthcare and other frontline workers can no longer register themselves on the government portal for getting coronavirus vaccines, PTI reported.
India is currently in its third phase of coronavirus vaccination drive with everyone above the age of 45 now eligible for the shots. The country launched its vaccination drive on January 16, but it was limited to healthcare workers and frontline staff. From March 1, the eligibility criteria was expanded to include people over 60 and those who are between 45 and 59 but have other illnesses. The third phase began on April 1.
In a letter to all the states and Union Territories, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that some frontline workers, who are not eligible for vaccinations anymore, were found enlisting themselves for the shot in the third phase of the immunisation drive. He said there had been a 24% increase in the database of healthcare workers on the CoWin portal in the past few days.
Bhushan asked the states to discourage this practice as it was in violation of the health ministry guidelines. At the same time, he directed officials to ensure that workers who registered for the shots on time are vaccinated at the...