Emphasizing on the importance of the CoWIN portal, the Odisha Government has instructed all the Collectors and Municipal Commissioners to ensure that more importance and preference is given to people with online appointment for Covid-19 vaccination.

As per a letter addressed to all Collectors, CDMs and PHOs, Additional Chief SecretaryPK Mohapatra, stated that the CoWIN portal is designed to facilitate the Covid-19 vaccination process in the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) also advises self-registration and on-line appointments through CoWIN to access the facility of vaccination.

However, in many vaccination centres across the state, it was observed that between online and on-spot registrations, the former had to wait for much longer in queues to get the jab. Therefore, to follow the same, the officials were instructed to brief Programme Officers /Managers, Vaccinators and Verifiers to ensure that on-line registrations are given more preference than on-spot registrations.