BENGALURU: After several attempts to register on the CoWin portal, B S Manohar (68) got the ‘server not working’ message. When he crossed the initial hurdle and tried to book a centre, day and time slot, none was available. “The software is not user-friendly even for those of us who know how to use computers. After registering, I tried hospitals near my house in Basavanagudi. But no slots were available for March 3, 4 or 21. I walked to 10 hospitals mentioned on the CoWin portal, but none of them had started the vaccination process,” said Manhor, who has blood pressure issues and has undergone a bypass surgery previously.
He finally went to a private hospital in Jayanagar, but had to return without a shot as he had not booked a slot.The strangest part of the ordeal though, Manohar said, was that names of three temples, a government school, an Urban Health Centre and a Bangalore One Centre were listed as vaccination sites on CoWin, though BBMP has not designated them as vaccine centres.
Sujatha, a 53-year-old and diabetic, tried to register her elderly in-laws and herself. Though she got through the first part of registration, the second stage of booking a centre, date and time did not show up on the screen. Also, there was no confirmation of registration and neither did the portal allow her to re-register.
P K Jagannathan and his family members had a tough time too. His nephew visited a hospital four times since Monday and has still not got a jab, despite having a slot booked. Jagannathan, his wife, his nephew, nephew’s wife and a neighbour booked slots between noon and 5 pm at Apollo Hospitals, Bannerghatta Road, but none of their names showed up on the portal when they went there on Tuesday.
“We were told that the CoWin portal was showing only 50 names and we were not on the list. We returned home and tried to re-register but got no time slot till the month-end. We are told that there is no guarantee even if we get a time slot because of technical errors in software,” said Jagannathan, a permanent executive committee members of Senior Citizens Forum of Karnataka.Strangely, several people have been booked for 1.30 am-6.30 am slot, which is an error on the part of the portal, stated Apollo Hospitals. Dr Sahana Govindaiah, assistant director, medical services, Apollo Hospitals, said that due to the glitch, the names of several people did not show up.