Youths struggle for slots on CoWin portal

LUCKNOW : City youths are battling for vaccination slots after getting themselves registered on CoWin app. It is pertinent to mention here that for the 18-44 age group in Lucknow , walk-in vaccinations are not accepted and one needs to book one’s slot through the website. However, no slots are available till the end of this month .

Abhishek Chaturvedi (21) of Alambagh said, “Why are the slots not available for youths ? Why is there no transparency in the system? Is it the shortage of vaccines, poor management or fault of software? We need to be told why we are not getting the slot for vaccination despite reg

istering ourselves on the Cowin app.”

Vineet Tewari (19), who has registered himself with CoWin app said, “I am told that the only way to get myself vaccinated is to register on CoWin portal and get a slot booked. But there are no slots available for this month. There is no way the app can notify users when a slot is available in their area. So I am checking the availability of slots regularly.”

Akash Pal (24), a resident of LDA Colony Kanpur Road is trying to find slots for himself and his brother Shanu for the past three days, Akash said, “I am checking the app five times a day but without luck. I don’t know how to get the slots or when they open and close down , I have heard that these slots open for just a few minutes and also close down within minutes.”

However, officials in the CMO office said that there was no shortage of vaccines. .An official of the health department said on condition of anonymity, “We don’t have any say in the software or giving slots and there is no shortage of vaccines in the state. We have enough vaccines and anyone having his name in the slot can get vaccinated.”