BHUBANESWAR: At least two persons in Cuttack city have received COVID-19 vaccination certificates without getting even a single dose of the vaccine. Dinesh Bhatia, a resident of CDA sector-VI who had registered his 64-year-old mother Sunita on the CoWIN portal for vaccination, is one. He had booked a slot to get his mother vaccinated at Chandrasekharpur urban primary health centre (UPHC) in Bhubaneswar on April 30.
However, he was not able to take his mother to the vaccination centre on the scheduled date due to some personal work. But, to Bhatia's utter surprise, he received a text message on his mobile phone (registered number) from the portal stating his mother was successfully vaccinated.
"Dear Sunita Bhatia, you have successfully been vaccinated with your first dose of Covaxin on April 30 at 6.42 pm. You may download your vaccination certificate from https://cowin.gov.in," read the message.
When Bhatia who is a businessman clicked the link, he found his mother’s provisional certificate for Covid-19 vaccination for first dose. The certificate, issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, mentioned all the details like the recipient’s name, her age, verified ID (PAN card) and beneficiary reference ID.
It also contained vaccination details like vaccine name, date of dose April 30 (batch number-37G200010A), next due date between May 28 and June 11, name of the person who administered the vaccine and the vaccination centre. Bhatia also confirmed that his mother’s PAN card number mentioned in the certificate is correct.
"I was surprised to read the message. Despite repeated attempts, I couldn’t contact Chandrasekharpur UPHC due to the weekend shutdown the following day," said Bhatia. When contacted, a senior BMC official said, "There might be a possible technical glitch in the CoWin portal. We will look into the matter."
In another case, Praveen Patodia of Cuttack city also received a message on his mobile phone from CoWIN portal stating that a 61-year-old woman Sashi Galari got the first dose of Covishield at Pangam PHC in Malkangiri district on April 2. "I downloaded the certificate and checked the recipient’s details in the provisional certificate but I do not know her," said Patodia.