Chennai: Wrong vaccination dates to delay booster – Times of India

CHENNAI: After pleading with authorities at King Institute for Preventive Medicine for more than six months, a 56-year-old resident from Anna Nagar finally got her vaccination certificate in November. But due to a technical glitch on the CoWIN portal, the hospital authorities told her that the vaccination date on the certificate will be that of November.
With the Centre insisting on a nine-month gap between the second dose and booster shot, she may have to wait for at least six more months exposing herself to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
There are several others like her who got vaccination certificates much later after receiving both doses. “We told staff nurses to note down names of people on google sheets and upload them on the CoWIN portal later. But when crowds at the vaccination centres swelled, many staff nurses wrote down the names on paper and uploaded them on google sheets and the CoWIN portal after a long gap,” said a senior official in the immunisation wing. Over a period of time, with huge backlogs, several names never made it to the portal.
The state does not have details on the number of such complaints, but official staff nurses were forced to upload names of thousands of people late on the portal. The CoWIN portal allows individuals to make minor corrections such as name spelling or sex, but not date of vaccination. “It will be a laborious process for us to refer to records, verify vaccination dates based on hospital or PHC records,” officials said. “As of now we have decided that booster doses will be given based on the date of vaccination mentioned in the certificates,” he said.
On Monday, health minister Ma Subramanian said the state will begin vaccinating 33.20 lakh teens between 15-18 years from January 3. “While instructions for teens are clear, we have not received any information about booster doses,” Subramanian said. “We don’t know whether people should be given the same vaccine or a mixed dose. We also don’t know the dosage they will require,” he said. The state, he added, is however prepared to start vaccinating priority groups including healthcare providers and senior citizens from January 10.