Technical faults, site overload hamper vaccination registry

Teething troubles marred the self-registration process on Monday with beneficiaries complaining of delays, technical glitches and difficulties in reserving appointments on the first day of the second phase of vaccinations in the district

Teething troubles marred the self-registration process on Monday with beneficiaries complaining of delays, technical glitches and difficulties in reserving appointments on the first day of the second phase of vaccinations in the district.

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Vikram Sharma, 65, a resident of DLF Phase-4, arrived at Chanderlok Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) for inoculation after he failed to book an appointment for vaccination through the Co-Win portal. “When we click on any of the dates throughout the month, the application shows a ‘no slots available’ message. There is no activity on the page when one clicks the button for next step. But once you click on the OK button, it goes back to the first page for registration,” said Sharma, demonstrating the process on his phone. He was registered as a walk-in beneficiary by the hospital staff and received the first dose of the vaccine.

A government employee, who requested not to be named, reached a private hospital around 12.30pm citing a similar issue. “There are no slots available for the entire month. Since the hospital was closer to my house, I thought they would resolve this issue and administer the shot. However, I couldn’t receive the dose today. The hospital staff noted down my name and contact details and said that they’d call me in the next few days,” the government employee said.

Vineet Goyal, a 70-year-old resident of DLF Phase-4, said that the application was not user friendly. “I couldn’t open the section that mentions the date and time for vaccination. It wasn’t working for any of the vaccination sites. The site was quite glitchy,” said Goyal.

Technical glitches and website overload also hampered the process of user registration. At the Civil Hospital in Sector 10, vaccination could not be initiated until 2pm due to delays, following which officials started maintaining a physical record of the process.

Dharmpal Yadav, 77, a beneficiary, said he had reached the Civil Hospital in the morning but was asked to return later as the Co-Win app was not working. “I was told that the website is not working. The staff took down my details and around 2pm, I was asked to visit again for the shot,” said Yadav.

Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer, said that while there had been a few initial hiccups, the process would get easier in the coming days. “The portal has been recently launched so there will be some teething troubles. In the next two to three days, the process is likely to get streamlined and users will not face hassle while booking appointments for the vaccination process,” said Yadav.