NEW DELHI, Apr 28: As millions rushed for registration for vaccination, the CoWIN platform crashed for a brief period on Wednesday but the users said it soon recovered and resumed the process successfully registering their names.
As the vaccine registration for all adult population in the country began at 4 P.M. on Wednesday for the vaccination process to start on May 1, millions of people rushed at a time hitting the button at the government’s dedicated website to be among the first to register their names. Unable to stand the rush, the system developed some glitches and crashed only to revive after a short while. Many people later said they had successfully completed the process.
The Centre had opened inoculation for everyone above the age of 18 from May 1 under a more “liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination”.
Those looking to register for vaccination were to go to https://www.cowin.gov.in/home and click on the “register/sign-in” option. However, this didn’t work for many who got an error message saying: “CoWIN server is facing issues. Please try later.”
However, Aarogya Setu, the Union government’s app for contact tracing and dissemination of medical advisories to contain spread of COVID-19, tweeted saying, “CoWIN Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register.”
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government declared on Wednesday that it would provide free Covid vaccination to all citizens aged between 18-44. A tweet by CMO Maharashtra read, “Today, the Cabinet under the leadership of CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has decided to provide free vaccination to all the citizens of Maharashtra aged between 18-44 years.”
Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria Wednesday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a dedicated Covid cell has been set up by the Indian Air Force to ensure faster coordination with different ministries and agencies on Covid-related operations. He also informed the prime minister that the IAF was in 24×7 readiness of its fleet to meet Covid related requirements across India and overseas.
India, in the last 24 hours, recorded 3,60,960 fresh Covid-19 cases and 3,293 deaths, which is the highest in the country so far. With today’s numbers, the total number of cases rose to 1,79,97,267 and the number of fatalities reached 2,01,187. At present, there are 29,78,709 active cases in India and as many as 1,48,17,371 people have recovered.
Meanwhile, with states complaining of vaccine shortage, the Centre on Tuesday released data to claim that more than one crore doses of vaccine were available with the states for vaccinated all above 18years of age and 86 lakhs more doses would be distributed to the states in the next three days.
On the opening of vaccine registration for the 18-45 age group, R S Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority on registration for vaccination, said some states and hospitals may come on board on May 1 or later, therefore, the visibility into the bookings/vacancy available for vaccination would be available then.
(Manas Dasgupta)
