Mumbai: On the eve of the mass immunisation drive, the state and the health department found themselves faced with a massive problem - the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network or CoWin application, the crucial technology monitoring the entire vaccination process was not functioning properly, resulting in messages not going out to the registered beneficiaries. Officials said technical issues had caused the server to slow down; however, messages had been conveyed to the beneficiaries through phone calls or WhatsApp groups.
State Immunisation Officer Dilip Patil said they were prepared and all directives regarding the vaccination drive had been issued to all the 291 vaccine centres across 36 districts. However, they were unable to send messages to all the registered beneficiaries due to a technical glitch in the CoWin app. “There is a possibility that there will be some issues on the very first day, as for the first time such a mass immunisation drive is taking place. The Co-Win application server has slowed down, due to which messages have not been sent to the registered beneficiaries. So we have created WhatsApp groups and messages will be sent to those groups, informing them about the vaccination centres and timing,” he said.
On Friday, around 8,00,000 registered healthcare workers were supposed to get messages with details of the centre and the time of vaccination. But as the server slowed down, the health department was unable to get the link to send messages to those registered.
Senior health officials said it was likely some issues would crop up during the initial days of the vaccination drive, which would be resolved later. “We are facing some problems but to address these, we have asked our team at the respective centres to call all the registered beneficiaries and provide them with the necessary information -- the venue and the time slot,” an official said.
