India's mass vaccination drive for people above the age of 60 and those above 45 but living with co-morbidities began on Monday. While many said they were happy about either receiving the vaccine or completing the registration process, several others faced stiff technical challenges.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first ones to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at around 7 am. But the vaccination registration portal for citizens started only around 9 am. Confusion ensued as the government communicated that the Co-Win 2.0 portal would be available for registration but did not clarify that the mobile application would not be the appropriate portal for registration.
The Ministry only clarified two hours after registration had begun that the Co-Win website and not the application can be used along with the Arogya Setu application for registration. By then, several people had started walking into the centres to be vaccinated. It further stated that by 1pm on Monday, over 1 million people had already registered on the Cowin portal.
In the replies to the Ministry's tweet, several people highlighted the issues that they were facing in accessing the portal.
Rashesh Padia and Bimal Patel from Gujarat, however were few of the individuals who successfully managed to book slots for their family members and were also vaccinated on the same day itself. Patel registered for his grandfather in Ahmedabad, who received the shot within 2 hours of registration.
Padia based in Ahmedabad as well, registered for his parents aged 62 and 60 respectively. BOOM contacted Padia who said that at 9 am while registering on the website from his phone, he faced a few glitches. But around 9:15 am, he booked from his laptop for an afternoon slot. His parents reached the Ambli Urban Health Centre in Ahmedabad around noon and received their vaccinations immediately. Both of them faced no side effects after receiving the vaccine.
Not A Smooth Ride For Everyone
Registration on day one was not a smooth process for everybody across the country.
Due to the increased traffic on the portal and vaccination slots only available between 9am-3pm, many citizens could not find slots for a long period.
BOOM spoke to Charmain Dcruz from Delhi for whom the registration process was very smooth and quick. The catch, however, is the day she got a slot for. "I have to go to Batra hospital on March 28 for my first shot at the vaccine."
Dcruz did not seem too worried about the wait in receiving the vaccine but a Twitter user from Mumbai scoured through all the available vaccine slots in the island city to find slots only at 10 hospitals.
Furthermore, several Twitter users also complained that they could not even find hospitals in specific areas of Mumbai even though they were a part of the lists of empanelled hospitals released by the Ministry.
Some hospitals that were just starting vaccination themselves were not aware of the procedure and were awaiting vaccination. One of BOOM's employees registered for her parents at KJ Somaiya hospital in Mumbai and then called the hospital to understand the slot she could book. An official at the hospital told her that the process would start only at noon as they were waiting for further instructions and they were unsure of their vaccination capacity for the day. When she called later, the officials said they themselves were unaware about the vaccination process.
A Twitter user also spoke about a similar incident wherein they were allotted a slot at Vikram Hospital in Bangalore but after reaching the hospital were told that the hospital was not ready to begin vaccination as they had not received the vaccines yet.
A health ministry press release states that close to 1,28,630 people above the age of 60 while 18,850 people between the ages of 45-59 but living with co-morbidities were vaccinated on day one of the mass vaccination.
Over 25 lakh people had registered on the portal till 7pm.