Registrations for all those aged above 18 began on the CoWIN portal or using the Aarogya Setu app to get vaccinated against COVID-19 starting 4 pm on Wednesday as the country gears up for the launch of the third phase of vaccination drive from 1 May. Soon after the registrations began at 4 pm, many users logged in to the Cowin app to register themselves for the vaccination but due to many of them attempting to register themselves there were complaints of the app crashing.
However, the Aarogya Setu soon issued a clarification over the issue and said Cowin Portal is working.
While, MyGov CEO Abhishek Singh said that we got around 25 lakh hits per second on CoWIN. "The response was tremendous, we got around 25 lakh hits per second which resulted into initial hiccups on the website. It’s working fine now, so are the apps (Arogya Setu- Umang)," he added.
There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed, it added. RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority said that on many days, we have had around 5 million people registering in a day and we expect more than double that number today. He shared a possibility that the system will be able to take the load when registrations open today.
As users also complained of non availability of some vaccination centers in some hospitals and states, Mr Sharma clarified that some states and hospitals may come on board on May 1 or later, therefore, the visibility into the bookings or vacancy available for vaccination will be available when they come on board.
Vaccination appointments for 18 plus will be possible once the State Governments and Private Vaccination Centers schedule Vaccination sessions, clarified Aarogya Setu.
Twitter had been flooded with messages of the CoWin app and website crashing or otherwise malfunctioning as people over 18 (and below 45) rush to register themselves for coronavirus vaccinations. Some were unable to obtain an OTP to register themselves, others found themselves unable to open the CoWIN website. Going by the complaints from many Twitter users, similar problems were faced by many using the Aarogya Setu app to register themselves and book an appointment.
As provided in the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy document, all priority groups, such as healthcare workers, frontline workers and citizens above aged 45 years or more (as on 01.01.2022), shall continue to be eligible for vaccination free of cost from government CVCs, or on payment from private CVCS.
