CoWIN gets global attention; 76 countries interested; however, in India people are facing delays when trying to log in to book a vaccine slot
The CoWIN software app with its sophisticated technology is grabbing global interest, by report is said to be the fastest-growing tech platform in the world. and Dr. R.S. Sharma, Chief of the Empowered Committee on Covid vaccine, said passport numbers can now be linked to vaccine certificates for international travel.
The Prime Minister is planning to share CoWin— the tech strength of India’s vaccination drive — as a product “licensed by the Central Government”, which will be available to all “interested countries for free, until perpetuity”.
“We have created a mechanism to allow citizens to combine their certificates when they have, by mistake, used two different user accounts for the two different doses of vaccination,” Sharma said. “We are constantly taking feedback from all the stakeholders, learning from our own experiences, and evolving the platform to make it as accessible and inclusive for all,” he said.
CoWIN has integrated with companies for wider outreach for India’s vaccination drive as a whole the the companies will allow users to “look for available slots for vaccination or vaccines. It will also allow users to access vaccination certificates of the users from CoWIN, against a beneficiary reference ID or registered mobile number”.
In India People Frustrated on Facing Delays When Trying Log In To Book A Vaccine Slot
It is understood that the app on being new might face delays and difficulties and in India, in that respect, people are facing delays when trying to log in and book a vaccination slot.
Millions are waiting while the app largely fails to register bookings for COVID vaccines at hospitals across the country.
In Maharashtra, Jayant Patil, the water resources minister said: “Over 1.3 billion Indians are compelled to register from a single, central app. The technical issues and errors being reported daily about the CoWIN app are causing inconvenience to millions of people in the country as well as in the state.”
Another NCP leader and minister, Nawab Malik, pointed out that over 450,000 senior citizens were still waiting for their second dose because of the slow supply of vaccines. “There are massive queues outside vaccination centers in the state, with lakhs of despondent senior citizens gathering to receive their second dose. Vaccine stocks are depleted because the Centre cannot provide states with the requisite supply.
If the Modi government did not have the capacity to fulfill its obligations, why did it announce the third phase of vaccination for those in the 18-44 age group from May 1, he asked.
According to Patil, people are fed up with excessive delays while trying to log in to book a vaccination slot and said, “These are extremely serious issues at a time when rapid vaccination is being widely touted as a solution to rein in the virus.”
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow states to develop their own apps for registration for the vaccination, but there has been no response so far.
Disappointed by the amateurish way in which the app functions, thousands of people in Mumbai, Pune, and other cities head out to smaller towns and villages hundreds of kilometres away, hoping to get their vaccine shots. Regrettably, many are turned away from those places as well.
Balasaheb Thorat, the revenue minister, and Congress leader, also backed the demand for Maharashtra to create its own app. “There is increasing confusion over booking slots in the state due to the technical problems of the CoWIN app,” he said. “Tech-savvy citizens have an edge over rural folk, and this has seen people from big cities traveling hundreds of kilometers to small talukas to get themselves vaccinated, sparking anger among the rural populace.”
Worse, many rural areas are now lagging behind in terms of vaccination, as city-dwellers crowd their centers, he said.
While the world will be using the CoWIN app, in a parody of situations, city tech-savvy citizens have started traveling to villages outside their cities to get a vaccination shot because of the technical challenges CoWIN is facing.