Glitches in the Co-WIN app are likely to pose a hurdle on the second day of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in West Bengal on Monday as experts failed to fix the gaps till late on Sunday night.
“The app was not functioning properly. Our experts were working on it. Till late on Sunday night, they were facing difficulty in session allocation, listing of beneficiaries and sending of SMS through the software,” said a top official of the state health department.
Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) app, a mobile application, was developed to monitor the progress of the nationwide vaccination program launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
On the first day, the vaccination drive had hit a hurdle after the app slowed down because of glitches.
Also Read: Co-WIN: Everything to know about the app behind India’s Covid-19 vaccine programme
“As SMSes were not going we had to call up the people who were to receive the vaccine individually, and ask them to report on time. The data about beneficiaries had to be entered manually on paper as the app was not opening. Sometimes we could not log in and sometimes the app was too slow even after logging in,” said an official of Canning sub-divisional hospital in South 24 Parganas.
More than 20,600 healthcare workers are likely to be vaccinated on the second day of the drive on Monday across 207 centres.
{{/usCountry}}More than 20,600 healthcare workers are likely to be vaccinated on the second day of the drive on Monday across 207 centres.
{{/usCountry}}“Officials have been asked to focus on two districts - Diamond Harbour and Nadia - as they had registered less than 50% turnout on the first day,” said a senior official.
According to the West Bengal government, at least 15,707 people were vaccinated on the first day against a target of 20,700 people. The union health ministry in its tweet had however claimed that only 9,730 people were vaccinated in the state. The state had challenged the centre’s claim.
Out of the 15,707 persons who received the vaccine, 14 persons had developed Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI). The condition of one nurse had turned serious, and she was later said to be stable.
Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between the ruling Trinamool Congerss and the Bharatiya Janata Party after at least two legislators of the TMC received the vaccine on the first day along with health workers.
While chief minister Mamata Banerjee had requested the centre to send adequate supply of vaccines and said that the state was ready to bear the cost, the BJP said that the vaccines fell short because TMC leaders were taking it.