Around 1.33 Crore Apply For Covid Vaccination: 10 Points

After initial glitches, the CoWIN site was getting almost 27 lakh hits a minute, government sources said. Appointments will be based on slots made available by states and private vaccination centres, they said.

“More Appointment slots will soon be offered. If slots are not currently available, please check again after sometime. We request your patience and understanding,” said government sources.

Vaccinations will begin on Saturday for everyone above 18 from May 1 (Saturday) under a more “liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination”.

Those who want to take the vaccine are to go to https://www.cowin.gov.in/home and click on the “register/sign-in” option.

At 4 pm, this didn’t work for many who got an error message saying: “CoWIN server is facing issues. Please try later.”

However, Aarogya Setu, the Union government’s app for contact tracing and dissemination of medical advisories to contain spread of COVID-19, tweeted saying, “Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register.”

After the fixes, people said the site was working and appointments were being slotted.

India began vaccinating people in January, starting with healthcare and frontline workers. The second phase included those above 45 and those with other illnesses. Earlier this month, the inoculations were opened to all adults as Covid cases exploded, leaving health services and medical resources severely strained.

Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin have been used so far. In a few weeks, say officials, Russia’s Sputnik will also be available. The centre has fast-tracked approvals for foreign vaccines.

India’s daily Covid deaths hit a new record today at 3,293 in 24 hours. New cases rose by over 3.6 lakh, the highest in the world.