CoWin Glitches Creates Chaos at Hospitals on the 1st day of COVID Vaccination Phase 2

As the country geared up the second phase vaccination focussing the senior citizens and those with comorbidities, the technical glitches on the CoWin portal, long queues with senior citizens in the scorching sun and perplexity among the hospital staff were common sight at most of the hospitals in New Delhi that has been assigned for vaccination.

This marks the second phase of the vaccination drive. The first phase of the vaccine drive was healthcare and frontline workers, while, this round is specified for senior citizen of about 60 years or above and those within 45-59 years with comorbidities.People within these age groups are all eligible for the two vaccines — AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

However, in the second phase, individuals have the choice to register and schedule the sessions on their own. The registration could be done through the CoWin platform on which individuals could register their mobile number, details of the beneficiaries and book time slots for vaccine sessions, or even reschedule if required. However, the prevailing confusion due to the technical glitches in CoWin platform has been a chaotic process.

On Monday, the elderly seen waiting in queues at hospitals had common complaints — their tryst with the CoWIN app and the lack of coordination at the vaccination centres.

Usha Agarwal, 71, a resident of Sainik Farms, who was accompanied by her daughter Anissha Agarwal to a vaccination centre in south Delhi, said, “I had registered online but we were made to wait for two hours.”

“At first, one wasn’t able to get the OTP on time,” Anissha said. “I logged in for my mom at least 10 times and when I succeeded, we arrived at the hospital, but again we were made to wait for two hours so it was quite a long day in that sense.”
A Bengaluru resident, Soumya Nambiar also faced similar problems while signing up her parents for vaccination.
In Delhi, there are around 43 lakh people eligible for the vaccines in second phase.

The first phase, initiated on 16 January, saw more than 3.6 lakh beneficiaries comprising healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated in Delhi. There are a total of 192 vaccination centres of which 56 are government facilities while the remaining are private hospitals.

The health ministry had Sunday released a user manual for ‘Citizen Registration and Appointment for Vaccination’. According to the guidelines, one phone number can be used to register as many as four beneficiaries.

Sunil Shaligram, who had come for his vaccination at the hospital, said, “There is complete confusion at Sassoon hospital. Senior citizens were in a queue for hours. Vaccination had to be halted for a while because of the technical problems.”

The hospital authorities said that due to unregistered beneficiaries being vaccinated, the app was not able to verify ages and it loaded extra work for the hospital staff.