CoWin glitch? Hyd-based Keralite gets vaccination certificate before booking a slot

A Keralite educationist based in Hyderabad was issued a false Covid vaccination certificate recently. The 45-year-old man, a native of Kanjirappally in Kottayam district who runs an educational organisation in Hyderabad, was shocked when he received his vaccination certificate, even when he had not booked a slot to get the jab.

On July 31, according to him, he had tried to book a vaccination slot at the Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda. However, he could not get the slot as the hospital informed him that they conduct vaccination only till 3 pm. That evening, however, he received a message congratulating him for taking the first dose of vaccine. He could also download the provisional certificate of first dose vaccination.

“On July 31, I checked the availability of vaccines on the CoWin portal. I found that there was one slot for Covishield vaccine available at Apollo, Hyderguda. I wanted only Covishield as it is accepted in other countries too. When I called the hospital to check if I can book a slot, they told me the vaccination usually ends at 3 pm. It was already 3.30 pm when I called,” he told Onmanorama.

But he was in for a shock a couple of hours later. He received around 6 pm the message on the vaccination certificate, stating he was administered Covaxin.

He said there was no way he could report the serious error. “The site has no way to have this reported. The phone numbers did not work either,” he said.

Finally, he had to delete his name from the CoWin app and register afresh. He got the first dose of vaccination on August 2.

“COWIN site is an important site and in any country it must be maintained with utmost care to ensure speedy vaccination with accurate numbers,” he said, raising apprehensions about the misuse of crucial data like Aadhaar number used for registering on the portal. He also expressed doubts that many such cases of 'false vaccination' might have gone unreported.

'Hospital says tech glitch'

He said when he contacted the hospital to report the issue, he was informed that it could be a technical error. Onmanorama has not been able to contact the hospital authorities for a clear version. The hospital is yet to respond to an email from Onmanorama.

The Covid vaccination certificate is issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to the data available on the ministry's website at Tuesday afternoon, 47,85,44,114 people in the country have been vaccinated so far against the disease.