Registration for precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccine begins on CoWIN portal on Saturday
New Delhi, Jan 8: Registration for the 'precaution dose' of 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.
The exercise of administering the precaution dose to these category of beneficiaries will begin from Jan 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 people 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 Centre informed states and UTs recently.
Such people are expected to obtain the advice of their doctor before deciding to avail of the precaution dose or third dose of the coronavirus 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 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.
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Court allows 5-day police custody of Bibhav Kumar in Swati Maliwal assault case
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court allowed five-day custodial interrogation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, sing the police remand was a "necessity" in the matter.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal was hearing the application of Delhi Police which was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava. The police had sought seven day custody.
It is alleged that Kumar, who is Kejriwal's personal assistant, assaulted AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM's residence on May 13.
"Considering the submissions made on behalf of both the parties, I find there is a necessity of police custody remand in the present case. Accordingly, the application moved by the investigating officer (IO) is partly allowed and the accused is remanded to police custody for five days," the court said in its order passed around 12:45 AM Sunday.
It noted the prosecution's submissions about the need to take Kumar to Mumbai and other parts of the national capital to collect evidence, which was not possible without the accused's custody.
"Admittedly, the case is at a nascent stage. Allegations made in the FIR are corroborated in her (Maliwal's) statement recorded by the magistrate on oath and further, it is again corroborated in the medico-legal case (MLC) of the victim or complainant," the court said.
The magistrate also observed, "I am aware of the view of constitutional courts that the opportunity must be given to the investigating agency to complete the investigation in order to reach the truth of the matter but at the same time the rights of the accused are also to be protected."
Asking the Investigating Officer to take Kumar into formal custody, the court directed his medical examination every 24 hours and said the investigating agency would not subject the accused to "any torture."
It also allowed Kumar to meet his advocate and wife for half an hour each during the police custody.
Kumar's application for providing requisite medicines was also allowed.
The proceedings which commenced around 9: 15 PM Saturday saw initial arguments by Srivastava following which the magistrate said, "I find force in the arguments of the APP (Additional Public Prosecutor) that there were sufficient grounds to arrest the accused without notice."
The prosecutor made several arguments, including those mentioned in the remand application and also that the "means or weapon" by which Kumar assaulted Maliwal had to be recovered.
The vehement counter-arguments by Kumar's counsels continued for more than one-and-a-half hours. One of his counsels, Rajiv Mohan, claimed that Maliwal had lodged the FIR "belatedly after deliberation and concoction."
The Delhi Police arrested Kumar earlier on Saturday and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming "infructuous" by a Delhi court.
