Day 2 of Covid-19 vaccination process in Mumbai: 800 names repeated on CoWIN
Of these 700 had to receive the Covishield shot on January 16, while the remaining names were of all the 100 people registered for Covaxin at Sir JJ Hospital
Mumbai, the CoWIN app continued to face glitches on Tuesday too, the second day of the vaccination drive. The app, which generates the time and centre the healthcare workers (HCWs) need to report at for the inoculation process, repeated the names of 800 people who were to take the jab on Day 1 (January 16). Of these 700 had to receive the Covishield shot on January 16, while the remaining names were of all the 100 people registered for Covaxin at Sir JJ Hospital.
“The app is still not functioning with 100% efficiency. It has minor glitches. It will take a day or two to solve the problems,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, executive health officer, BMC.
The civic body is aiming to immunise 4,000 HCWs each day in Mumbai across 10 centres with the two vaccines. On Saturday, 1,926 of the 4,000 HCWs who were to receive the vaccine for the first time were administered Covishield.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) rules, HCWs who did not turn up to receive the vaccine on Saturday will be administered the shot only after the first phase of the process ends. However on Tuesday, the CoWIN app listed the names of 800 HCWs who were on the registration list for the Covishield vaccine on Saturday but had not turned up. The app also failed to generate messages to those HCWs who had been chosen for the vaccine at a stipulated time.
On Saturday, of the 100 healthcare workers who were enlisted, 39 were administered Covaxin. “The list we received had the same names as on Saturday. Of the 61 shortlisted people who could not get vaccinated on Saturday, 13 got inoculated today,” Dr Sankhe Lalit, in-charge of the vaccination, at Sir JJ Hospital, said, on Tuesday.
{{/usCountry}}On Saturday, of the 100 healthcare workers who were enlisted, 39 were administered Covaxin. “The list we received had the same names as on Saturday. Of the 61 shortlisted people who could not get vaccinated on Saturday, 13 got inoculated today,” Dr Sankhe Lalit, in-charge of the vaccination, at Sir JJ Hospital, said, on Tuesday.
{{/usCountry}}The app is supposed to inform a registered HCW if their names were among those enlisted for the vaccination. However, it has not been generating these messages, prompting BMC to opt for a mechanism in which civic officials have to call each HCW and inform them of their chance to get vaccinated.
{{/usCountry}}The app is supposed to inform a registered HCW if their names were among those enlisted for the vaccination. However, it has not been generating these messages, prompting BMC to opt for a mechanism in which civic officials have to call each HCW and inform them of their chance to get vaccinated.
{{/usCountry}}“For Tuesday’s vaccination process, many of the shortlisted HCWs received calls after 11.30 pm on Monday night, while several others got messages after 6am on Tuesday morning,” said an official who is looking after the vaccine drive at BYL Nair Hospital, where 165 beneficiaries were immunised against Covid-19 on Tuesday.
{{/usCountry}}“For Tuesday’s vaccination process, many of the shortlisted HCWs received calls after 11.30 pm on Monday night, while several others got messages after 6am on Tuesday morning,” said an official who is looking after the vaccine drive at BYL Nair Hospital, where 165 beneficiaries were immunised against Covid-19 on Tuesday.
{{/usCountry}}The technical glitches in the app led to the vaccination of mere 48% of the shortlisted candidates on day one. Thus, to iron out the loop holes, the drive was kept on hold on Sunday and Monday.
A health department senior official, requesting anonymity, said, “We are speculating that the app can’t identify similar names which have been generated already. So it only takes instructions to generate automated names without identifying the old names.”
Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC, said the central government has been informed about the problem. “The app is designed by the central government and we have intimidated them about the issue,” he said.
Until the issue gets sorted, BMC has decided to follow dual intimidation methods to avoid relying only on technology.
“Along with the CoWIN messages, we will individually call the registered HCWs from the ward offices,” said Kakani.