Vaccination hits a hurdle in Bengal as Co-WIN app develops glitches on 1st day

The Covid-19 vaccination drive in West Bengal hit a hurdle on the first day after officials faced difficulties in operating the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) application, developed by the Centre to monitor and track the inoculation process.

Health workers faced problems while uploading data on the app about beneficiaries receiving the vaccine across the state, as the application was reported to have slowed down hampering its operation.

“There were some technical glitches and the app had slowed down since Friday. Not all messages were going to health workers who were supposed to receive the vaccine on Saturday morning. The persons concerned were individually called up and informed over the phone,” said a senior official of the state health department.

On Saturday morning too, when the vaccination drive took off at 204 centres across the state, problems were encountered with the app.

“The data of the beneficiaries who received the vaccine was supposed to be uploaded. But it was taking a lot of time as the app was working too slowly. Rest everything went fine,” said a doctor from Kandi sub-divisional hospital in Murshidabad district, around 200 km north of Kolkata.

In another hospital in South 24 Parganas, doctors encountered the same problem and had to enter the names and details of the beneficiaries on paper.

“The app was not opening. We had to log in and log out several times. It was also too slow. We were asked to enter the details manually on paper,” said a doctor from Caning sub-divisional hospital in South 24 Parganas, around 60 km south of Kolkata.

Senior health department officials in Kolkata said the matter had been flagged and was being taken care of.

“The app was developed by the centre. We have informed the persons concerned and the matter was being taken care of. Apart from some minor glitches everything was going fine. Not a single beneficiary had developed any complications. The drive was running smoothly across all centres,” said a top official of the state health department.