NEW DELHI: The first day of the national vaccination drive covering general public saw the initial enthusiasm of beneficiaries ebb into frustration following glitches in the technological platform driving the initiative. Over one million citizens were registered on the Co-WIN portal in barely four hours after the registration window opened at 9 am.
A vast majority of people from across country complained about the unavailability of inoculation slots and the glitches they experienced while registering on the CoWIN platform — a fact highlighted by an online poll by LocalCircle showing nearly 92 per cent of the over 6,800 people surveyed had failed to get a vaccination slot on Day 1 of the second phase of Covid vaccination.
The survey showed that while 13 per cent respondents failed in accessing the site app, 50 per cent did not get any OTP or SMS while 29 per cent got registrations but no appointments. Only 8 per cent of citizens said they were able to book the appointments successfully.
The Union health ministry had to clarify that the registration and booking for appointments are to be done through the CoWIN portal. “Registration and booking for appointment for #COVID19 vaccination is to be done through #CoWIN Portal:www.cowin.gov.in,” it tweeted. There is no #CoWIN App for beneficiary registration. The App on Play Store is for administrators only.”
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan promised that the glitches in the system will be streamlined in the days to come. “A certain number of people can walk-in at the centres. There are many people who can’t access or face difficulty in booking. All these systems will be streamlined within one week. As of now, there is no issue in the app.”
Some experts pointed out that the platform is experiencing the same problems faced in Phase 1 of the vaccination when only healthcare and frontline workers were being covered. “As of now, less than 1 per cent of population has been vaccinated and in order to vaccinate the targeted 30 crore over the next few months, it is important to urgently upgrade CoWIN’s infrastructure to,” said a public health expert. The IMA, in a statement, said that the CoWIN platform needs to be more “people friendly.”