App glitches mar Day 1 of vaccine registrations for 18+
NEW DELHI: As India opened the registration of all adults above 18 years of age for vaccination against Covid-19 on the CoWIN portal at 4 pm on Wednesday, many people took to social media to complain about the technical problems they faced trying to register for the third phase of the inoculation drive that is scheduled to begin from May 1.
Some of them complained that the portal was not responding while others complained that it had crashed. At 4.35 pm, a tweet from the verified Twitter handle of the Aarogya Setu mobile application said the CoWIN portal is working and that there was a minor glitch at 4 pm, which was fixed.
At 4.54 pm, a tweet from the same handle stated: “Vaccination appointments for 18 plus will be possible once the state governments and private vaccination centres schedule vaccination sessions. Registration is happening on cowin.gov.in.”
Registration for the newly-eligible category for Covid-19 vaccination is possible through the CoWIN platform and the Aarogya Setu app. After registration, taking an appointment to get a Covid-19 vaccine jab would be mandatory for those aged between 18 and 44 years as walkins will not be allowed initially, officials said.
Those above 45 years of age can still avail the facility of on-site registration to get vaccinated, they added.
Also, from May 1, the types of anti-coronavirus vaccines and their prices will be displayed on the CoWIN portal for the citizens to make an informed choice at the time of booking an appointment at a private vaccination centre.
Beginning May 1, the coronavirus vaccinations will follow two tracks – those above the age of 44 will continue to get free
doses that are distributed by the Union government to states, while those below 45 will need to either pay for doses at private hospitals (if available) or wait till their state governments acquire and make them available at a price or for free.
However, several states and the Union government differed on whether there was a shortage of doses, reinforcing concerns that the May 1 roll-out of the third phase of the drive for everyone above the age of 18 could be patchy and uncertain.
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Rajasthan have said previously they are unlikely to open up the vaccination programme from May 1, but several others – Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Tamil Nadu — said they were expecting more doses in order to account for the additional number of recipients.
The arithmetic is complicated due to the second doses that will be due, even as many open negotiations with the manufacturers or await confirmation of delivery timelines.
Punjab was among states that raised fresh concerns over availability on Tuesday. State health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that Punjab has roughly 250,000 doses at hand for the 45-plus category and those eligible for the second doses, and, at an average utilisation rate of 90,000 per day, stocks were likely to run out over the next two-to-three days. “Existing doses cannot be used as Centre’s supply has remained very limited,” said Sidhu.
Shortage was also reported from Tamil Nadu, where uptake is high and the Greater Chennai Corporation in the state capital opened temporary vaccination centres this week to avoid overcrowding. But the agency later decided that due to a shortage in supply of Covaxin, these centres will administer doses only to those who are up for their second shot.
In certain centres, several people have complained of not being able to get a second dose as well.
A similar rush and shortage was also reported from Kerala, where people eligible for their second doses are now queuing up at centres.
In Thiruvananthapuram, three people collapsed while waiting in long queues and were shifted to a hospital on Monday.
The Union government, however, denied that there was a shortage.
Over 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses are available with states and Union Territories (UT) and they will receive an additional 5,770,000 doses within the next three days, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday. The central government has so far provided 15,9596,140 vaccine doses to states and UTs free of cost. Of this, the total consumption, including wastage, is 14,8976,248 doses, it said.
According to detailed figures released, Punjab was scheduled to get 350,000 doses in the pipeline.
The figures showed that Uttar Pradesh, with 1.1 million, and Bihar, with 700,000, were scheduled to receive the highest numbers of doses from the pipeline over the next few days.
Both these states said they will allow all adults to take doses form May 1, although Bihar was yet to announce if it has placed any direct orders for doses from the manufacturers.
UP has placed orders for 5 million doses each of Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, and an official said the roll-out of Phase 3 could depend on the supply of these and the pending doses.
Officials in several states have raised concerns over lack of clarity from manufacturers for the delivery timeline, while some others said they were yet to open discussions or hear back from the companies.
An official in Madhya Pradesh, where the government is otherwise confident of launching the next phase from May 1 itself, said an order of 4.5 million doses of Covishield has been placed but deliveries are only expected by mid-May.
Officials in Chhattisgarh said they had placed orders for 5 million doses in an even split between the two manufacturers, but were informally told that deliveries could take till July, according to an official who asked not to be named.
These issues with deliveries and an expected rush as is typical whenever new groups of people are made eligible has shrouded the May 1 launch in uncertainty. The problems are complicated by concerns over pricing – both manufacturers said they will offer the lowest doses to the Union government – and calls by experts and states to make it free.
In Bengal, which will launch the drive after the election results are out, an official said that private hospitals will not be allowed to use any of the stocks distributed till now, in keeping with the government guidelines.
This has, however, raised questions over the options for people who took their first doses at these facilities, since private centres will now need to directly procure doses and administer them at retail prices.