Glitches in Co-WIN app hamper vaccination drive

AMRITSAR : Technical glitches in Co-WIN app to monitor and track the inoculation process are hampering the coronavirus vaccination drive in Punjab as the state health department is unable to upload the data of health workers voluntarily showing up at session sites to get jabs.

The health department officials said due to the problems session sites are not being created and the app is not listing volunteer healthcare workers. As a result, Punjab is one of the states with lowest inoculation percentage of Covid-19 vaccine.

“We were to create vaccine sessions at nearly 80 locations on Wednesday but managed only 34 due to the technical issues. A low turnout is being reported on account of less session sites as those listed for a particular site are forced to skip vaccination,” said state Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar.

“We have already taken up the issue with the Union ministry concerned. We are waiting for the problem to be resolved as the Centre is not allowing manual entering of vaccine data,” he added. Patiala civil surgeon Dr Satinder Singh said, “Many beneficiaries get confused and miss out their turn as they are not receiving messages. Also, since all the states are using the application at the same time, the data entry is being done at a slow speed. We have informed the health department about the problem and hopefully the glitches will be resolved soon.”

A health official from Amritsar, said, “The app starts working from 10am onwards even as the vaccination begins an hour before. Therefore, the beneficiaries have to wait for hours.”

Of the 3,480 private healthcare workers scheduled to take vaccine shots in Punjab on Wednesday, 2003 showed up at 34 private hospitals.