Soon after registration began for vaccination of those aged 18 and above, the CoWin portal crashed on Wednesday. Similar glitches were also reported in the Aarogya Setu App. The complaints poured in from people who were either unable to load the CoWIN website or did not receive the OTPs -- the key for logging into the platform.
Many users took to social media and started sharing screenshots of hurdles they faced while attempting to schedule a date on the CoWin portal during the registration process. While some said they were seeing error messages while trying to register, a few others complained they were not receiving the OTP required to log in to CoWin on their phones.
Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Municipal Corporation on Wednesday said that the 73 vaccination centres in private hospitals would be increased to over 100 and they would cater to all those above 18 years of age. The civic body reiterated that along with this, 227 centres would be set up across all wards in the city for preventing overcrowding.
“I am not able to schedule a slot after getting registered. Is there anything that I am missing in the procedure?? @mygovindia @mybmc #Cowin #cowinregistration #mumbai,” tweeted @sunnysiroya.
in some cases, it took as many as three attempts to complete the registration process on cowin.gov.in, but no appointment could be booked thereafter. While, registration is supposed to be through OTP sent to the mobile number entered by a user, despite receiving the OTP, the website was not allowing one to 'verify and proceed' even after entering the OTP.
“As soon as the registration started I tried to log in, but as the portal was sluggish, the OTP took its time and when we finally entered the OTP, the page showed ‘504 error’. After three attempts I managed to complete the registration process but couldn’t book an appointment slot as it fagged 'no slot available' for the next one week,” said Nikhil Mishra.
“First you don't get the OTP and then once you are lucky enough to step inside the portal, you get to see what you haf-expected! Mumbai has no centres accepting #cowinregistration for 18+. TaDa” tweeted @brshah176.
Karen Castelino, a young social entrepreneur, said, "Why did the government start registration for 18+ so early when vaccination centres are subsisting n minima stock? When you select Mumbai district to book a slot on the CoWIN app, it says there are no vaccination centres available for booking. Vaccination for those above 18 can wait for a while. The vaccination drive for medical and frontline workers, those above 60 and 45 years, should be completed first."
Meanwhile, the official handle of the Aarogya Setu clarified that there was a minor glitch at 4 pm which was fixed immediately. "Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register," it said with a screenshot of the website opening. It added that appointments will only be possible once the state governments and private vaccination centres schedule sessions.
Some social media users said they could log in but could not find any nearby hospital offering vaccines to people above the age of 18 years. The old data of hospitals offering vaccination to people above the age of 45 years was on display.
“#cowinregistration no slots available in Mumbai for below 45yrs age even till July and that's the maximum that one can scroll to... Is there anyone who was able to get a slot in Mumbai ?” @AnuragKharb.
The BMC on Wednesday said it would set up vaccination centres in all wards so that all above 18 years of age can take their jabs in their respective ward and don’t create chaos at one centre. “We will be setting up around 227 vaccine centres across Mumbai, which means one in each Ward for all citizens in 18 years plus age category. Currently, there are 136 vaccine centres, of which 63 are civic and government-run vaccine centres, while 73 are private vaccine centres,” said BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.
“Moreover centres in private hospitals would be increased to 100 plus private hospitals and they shall cater for vaccination to all citizens in the age category of 18 plus,” he added.
(With input by Ronald Rodrigues)
