Govt working on fixing COVID-19 vaccination app CoWIN as India vaccination drive proceeds

COVID-19 vaccination drive at Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh

The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccination drive began in India on January 16. Over 1 lakh healthcare workers and eligible persons under the prioritised group were vaccinated on Day 1. However, the COVID-19 India vaccination drive faced some hurdles after the CoWIN app experienced glitches.

The CoWIN app is being used as a platform to coordinate the massive inoculation process. It is also aimed at helping health authorities monitoring coronavirus vaccines in real-time. The app is used to register and acknowledge beneficiaries, allocating vaccination centres, live monitoring, etc. However, the vaccination drive was interrupted by a few CoWIN app glitches. The COVID-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra was paused for two days due to technical issues with the CoWIN app. The Odisha government too halted the coronavirus vaccination drive for a day.

According to an Economic Times report, the issue was fixed in the early hours of January 18. However, some districts are reporting slow loading of data. “In many districts, we are facing issues like slow loading speeds. It is not because of network issues. We have been told that this could be because of increased load on the portal,” Jharkhand health minister Banna Gupta said.

The government is now working on fixing the CoWIN app issues. The report cited sources who claim that the government had not factored in people who registered for vaccination in the first few days but did not turn up. No provision was created for registering alternate healthcare workers on the spot. The app will now include an absentee provision. It will allow another eligible person from the list to get authenticated in real time for the free slot.

It will also bring real-time authentication through Aadhaar for verification purposes. Under the updated CoWIN app, the eligible candidate can verify their identify through Aadhaar-based OTP or through mobile number and photograph to get the vaccination shot as a replacement to the absentee.

Also read: Where to register for COVID-19 vaccine in India

Self-registration is not allowed at the moment. It will be "available in the later phases of implementation”. People eligible for getting vaccinated will get an SMS that will inform them when and where it will take place. The CoWIN app can be downloaded for free, which will help record vaccine date. The application will be available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and may also be available for devices running on KaiOS. It is to be noted that the application has not been deployed for use by citizens and the modalities of the process may change.