Minutes after commencing registration for those aged 18 and above, India's Covid-19 vaccination portal CoWIN crashed on Wednesday. Glitches were also reported on the Aarogya Setu App. Both platforms were later back online, allowing those eligible to register for the life-saving jab.
Those looking to register for inoculation starting May 1 took to social media to share their experiences with the portal.
As registrations opened at 4 pm, complaints poured in from people who were unable to load the CoWIN website or not receiving OTPs to log in to the platform.
Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register. pic.twitter.com/c94fpoURcT
— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) April 28, 2021
Those who did get the OTPs reported that they were unable to type the OTP on the portal's website.
Users say the portal is now back online and registration is open to all adults.
CEO of the National Health Authority, RS Sharma, told media outlets on Wednesday, "On many days, we have had around 5 million people registering in a day. We expect more than double that number today.
"We think our system will be able to take the load when registrations open today," Sharma said.
Earlier this month, the central government made it mandatory for those aged between 18 and 45 to register themselves on one of the two portals in order to get vaccinated. No walk-ins will be allowed in the initial stages of the third phase, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
India started its nationwide inoculation drive on January 16 of this year. More than 14 crore doses of the two Covid-19 vaccines approved for emergency use - Covaxin and Covishield - have been administered across the country to date. A number of states have made vaccination free of cost for those aged between 18 and 45.
Healthcare and frontline workers were vaccinated in the first phase, with the central government bearing the expense of the life-saving jabs. In the second phase, vaccinations were opened for those aged 45 and above.