COVID-19 | Paytm launches vaccination slot booking feature on its app: Here're the details

With the help of vaccination slot booking, the app users can now search, discover and book their vaccination slots for both Covaxin and Covishield at the nearest centre.

Moneycontrol News

June 14, 2021 / 20:10 IST

Representative Image (Image: Reuters)

Leading digital financial services platform Paytm on June 14 announced the launch of vaccination slot booking in addition to its Vaccine Finder service on the app.

With the help of the new feature, the app users can search, discover and also book their vaccination slots for both Covaxin and Covishield at the nearest centre. The firm claims the new facility would help Indians seamlessly book vaccination slots and gain immunity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Centre clears 91 applications, including from Paytm, MakeMyTrip, to offer vaccine bookings

Earlier in May, Paytm had launched Vaccine Finder on the app as vaccination opened for all in India. The finder has filtering options which help the user generate leads for vaccine booking, including information such as the type of vaccine available and the fee charged for it.

The new feature in the application uses Co-Win integration to gather data about vaccination centres. For vaccination appointment, a user would have to register using their number and can locate the centres via pin code or name of the district. Following this, they will have to select their age group and mention if they are looking for the first dose or the second.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show