CoWin app glitches, long queues, confusion mark day 1 of Covid vaccination’s phase 2 in Delhi

New Delhi: Confusion prevailed on the first day of the vaccination drive for senior citizens and those with comorbidities in the national capital. Technical glitches on the CoWin portal, long queues with senior citizens waiting in the sun, confusion among hospital staff, was a common sight at most designated hospitals in Delhi Monday.

This is the second phase of the vaccination drive in the national capital. It is for those in the specified priority category of 60 years or above and those within 45-59 years with co-morbidities in Delhi. Around 43 lakh people are eligible for the two vaccines — AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin — in this round.

The first phase, which began 16 January, saw over 3.6 lakh beneficiaries comprising healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated in Delhi. 

There are a total of 192 vaccination centres of which 56 are government facilities while the remaining are private hospitals. 

CoWin app registration leaves the aged frustrated

On Monday, the elderly seen waiting in queues at hospitals had common complaints — their tryst with the CoWin app and the lack of coordination at the vaccination centres. 

Usha Agarwal, 71, a resident of Sainik Farms, who was accompanied by her daughter Anissha Agarwal to a vaccination centre in south Delhi, said: “I had registered online but we were made to wait for two hours.”

“At first, one wasn’t able to get the OTP on time,” Anissha said. “I logged in for my mom at least 10 times and when I succeeded, we arrived at the hospital, but again we were made to wait for two hours so it was quite a long day in that sense.”

Dwarka resident Col Sanjay Mahajan (retd), 60, accompanied by his mother, Amita Mahajan, 80, a resident of Rajinder Nagar, said he had registered online for both of them but neither received any confirmation message. 

“So, we came here to Sir Ganga Ram and have been sitting in the lounge area as the authorities don’t have our names, but when I registered online, it did say confirmed,” Col Mahajan told ThePrint.

S.K. Khanna, 73, said he received the OTP six times after he tried registering from 9 am onwards on the web portal. “I have been waiting at my vaccination centre near ITO since 11:30 am,” he told ThePrint in the afternoon.

There were exceptions like 85-year-old Shaila Haider of Niti Bagh, who confirmed that she didn’t face any issue or trouble while registering on the CoWin portal.

ThePrint reached director general health welfare of Delhi government, Nutan Mundeja, through calls and text messages for a comment, but there was no response until the time of publishing this report.

Variation in protocol across hospitals

According to the initial plan, hospitals were only supposed to vaccinate those who had first registered online and then visited the centres. However, hospital authorities at the spur of the minute decided to allow some of their patients to register on site as well.

While some hospitals were allowing walk-ins in Delhi, others weren’t. 

For example at the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, where registration began by 10:30 am and went on until 5 pm, the initial plan was to not allow spot registrations. 

“Since there was some confusion in the first half and people weren’t able to register online, those who came registered with the hospital and walked in, got the shot,” Dr Neelam Roy, nodal officer for Covid-19 vaccination at RML, told ThePrint. A total of 130 people received the shot here Monday. 

At the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, Dr Chhavi Gupta, media spokesperson and incharge of outsourcing, said that while the hospital allowed people to register for a slot at the site, it allotted the slots for other days. “This doesn’t mean, one can come, register oneself and then get the shot right away,” Dr Gupta told ThePrint. “We can’t let it impact people who might have already registered on CoWin online.”  

Around 18 people in the 60+ years age category and 35 people in the 45-59 years category received the Covishield here Monday. There was no case of adverse event following vaccination reported at the hospital until 5 pm.

N.N. Mathur, director at Lady Hardinge Hospital, said they didn’t allow walk-ins Monday. 

Long delays order of the day

The day was also marked by long delays for those waiting to be vaccinated. 

75-year-old K.L. Malhotra, a resident of Paharganj, said he had been at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital since 10 am. He told ThePrint at 2:40 pm that his turn still hadn’t come. “I registered online but even then my turn hasn’t come and I feel tired now,” he said. 

Sushil Khera, 78, who suffers from motor neuron disease, was at the hospital since 11 am and was again waiting for his turn at 2:45 pm. Hospital authorities at Ganga Ram said they would allow walk-ins after 3pm when ThePrint visited the centre in the afternoon.

At Max Hospital in Saket, over 600 people were waiting for their turn to get the Covid vaccine shot. While the hospital too had decided to allow walk-ins from 3 pm onwards, the entire process was delayed. 

When ThePrint visited Max Hospital at 2 pm, the CoWin portal wasn’t working due to which hospital authorities weren’t able to allow on-site registrations according to the original plan. 

“Even if they made online payments on our website, the senior citizen category is expected to share the OTP with us as per the government guidelines else we can’t let them take the shot here, so we didn’t allow walk-ins,” said Tanushree, public relations manager for Max Hospital, Saket, who was present on the spot managing the crowd. 

Several of the elderly sitting in wheelchairs in the sun were seen complaining to the authorities about poor arrangements often resulting in arguments.

With inputs from Manisha Mondal.

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