Uttar Pradesh: Vaccination apps come in handy to book your shot

LUCKNOW: With more people getting vaccinated every day, it has become difficult to find slots on the state run CoWin app. Now, many apps and chat boxes have come up to help citizens find nearest vaccination centres and vacant slots.
One such app available on Android is ‘Vaccinate Me’ which is being used by a number of people in the city. The app starts telling about the available slots and hospitals as soon as the user puts in the required information such as pin code, state, age group and vaccine in it.
Another app Vaccine finder helps to book Covid vaccination slots in India. If the slots are unavailable, the app takes the user’s email and notifies via mail once the slot becomes available.
“I’ve been trying to book the first dose for my parents. Finding a suitable slot was getting tough since within seconds they were getting booked. Finally, I found one through the app. The best part is the app shows you current statistics of Covid vaccination,” said Pragya Varma, a resident of LDA Colony.
A chatbot has also been set up by the government in collaboration with WhatsApp for citizens to find the vaccination booths. Citizens only need to add the number 9013151515 to their contacts. Send ‘namaste’ as a whatsApp message to the given number. Once that is done, the chatbot will guide you to find your nearest centre.
“Server hampers flow while booking a slot on CoWin. However, the chatbot works without any hindrance,” said Nikhil Katyal, who booked his second dose of vaccination on it.