New Delhi: More than 50 lakh registrations have been done on Co-Win website for receiving covid-19 vaccine so far and this number is expected to cross 1 Crore, government officials said on Tuesday.
Co-Win portal faced some glitches on first day of roll out of second phase of nationwide covid-19 inoculation drive that has now been extended to senior citizens and people aged 45 and over with co-morbidities. Following several complaints, the union health ministry on Tuesday clarified that the portal is being improved and the glitches were due to confusion among the public.
“This happened since people were trying to use some app that looked similar to that of Co-Win. However, it has been clarified that there are no such apps for vaccination. People can straightaway register through Aarogya Setu app or Co-Win website. There were no glitches in the system," said R S Sharma, Chairperson, Empowered Group of COVID Vaccination
“We have been watching it closely and we are aware of the fact that the portal has to be hugely scalable. There is no issue on the scalability of the portal as such. Every step is taken to ensure smooth functioning of the portal which may have one sixth of the world population register for vaccination," said Sharma.
Sharma further said that essentially since Monday when the second phase began, the government has set a framework for the citizens where one can register voluntarily on Aarogya Setu App (which has an extension for Co-Win) or straight away register on Co-Win portal https://www.cowin.gov.in/.
Sharma also explained the step-by-step procedure in registering for the vaccine. The beneficiary needs to enter his/her mobile number – enter the OTP received – a dashboard will pop up where one can register for vaccination and can opt for up to four people. Citizens can also schedule an appointment – where one can choose from a list of hospitals based on one’s location. The hospital chosen will show the time slot of vacancies available for vaccine administration.
“There is also flexibility to choose different time slot for different members i.e. reservation can be made for all the four members together or on different dates based on their convenience," said Sharma.
“There is also flexibility to change, cancel and reschedule reservation for the jab. Once you take the first jab, the second jab is also scheduled automatically at the same place where you take the first jab. This is because at one place/hospital only one type of vaccine is being used," he added.
Sharma said that the booking for vaccination is as simple as train reservation and the site also has a provision to change the place of the second jab ensuring the fact that the newly opted hospital gives the same vaccine as per your first jab. At the supply side the hospital publishes its time table and public can make reservations against those slots, said Sharma.
The government said that there is a minimal documentation involved in this vaccination drive and people above 60 years need to submit only one document that proves their identity and age; and for people between 45 and 60 years and who has a condition of comorbidity, a certificate from a registered practitioner is all is needed extra which will be uploaded on the system.
“Every detail of vaccination is recorded in real time at the backend with details of which person - what vaccine - when and by whom the vaccine was administered. On receiving the second dose, everyone gets a final certificate which will be given as a printout with digital signature," said Sharma adding that this will be put in your Aarrogya Setu app and also in your DigiLocker for the convenience of the end user.
Speaking about the data security of the portal Sharma said that the number of transactions will be large and also at the same time the data has to be safe, secure and free from cyber-attacks.
“We are taking care of the best security practices and we want to ensure that the citizen’s data is safe. We are asking only for name, gender and age. We are not collecting even addresses," said Sharma. State Governments are coordinating with the hospitals and supply of vaccines is happening through them. At the moment the total number of hospitals involved is around 27,000; 12,500 are private hospitals; 11,000 are Ayushman Bharat empanelled hospitals, 800 – CGHS.
“We are encouraging the states to enrol more and more private sector hospitals. States like Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana and Odisha which have their own insurance schemes instead of CGHS have been encouraged to enrol those hospitals that provide such schemes," said Sharma.
India started covid-19 inoculation drive on January 16th 2021. “More than 1.48 Crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. These include more than 67 lakh Healthcare workers who got the first dose and around 26 lakh healthcare workers who got the second dose."
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