17,079 citizens get the jab even as Co-WIN turns spoiler

KOLKATA: The community vaccination was launched across the state on Monday. The Health department carried out vaccination on 17,079 people including the elderly citizens on Monday, an official said.

CoWIN 2.0 app played a spoilsport on the first day of Community vaccination drive in Bengal as it showed technical glitches slowing down the massive immunization drive taken up by the State Health Department.

CoWIN 2.0 app went live at noon on Monday but soon after the community vaccination was launched the app stopped functioning around 2 pm. As it was decided by the Health department, around 15 government hospitals in the city and 10 private hospitals started the inoculation for people above the age of 60 and also for those belonging to the age bracket of 45-59 having comorbidities. Soon after the process started on Monday afternoon the health officials faced inconveniences to administer the vaccine on the people as the new version of CoWIN app did not function properly.

Sources in the health department said most of the private hospitals in the city did not receive special T-syringes on time. The vaccine vials however reached the hospitals. Due to the lack of proper syringes, the health officials did not get the desired results.

“We have taken up the CoWIN app issue with the Centre. It was also discussed how the community immunization drive was affected on the first day,” said a state Health department official.

Elderly people were seen queuing up at both the government and private health establishments to receive a jab. The process also suffered due to short supply of T-syringes, used for administering the vaccine, sources said. Some of the elderly citizens had to return home without taking the vaccines.