Thiruvananthapuram: Months after the commencement of the mass inoculation drive against COVID-19, the authorities are yet to streamline the processes starting from registration to administration of the all-important jab at the allotted day and hour. Lack of advance information on the availability of vaccine doses is preventing vaccination centres from allocating more slots to citizens through the CoWIN portal.
The centres are now issuing e-tokens only for the next day, based on the stock in their possession. Most private centres, meanwhile, are allowing advance booking based on the doses administered the previous day.
With the increase in demand, tokens are grabbed within minutes of uploading them to the portal (www.cowin.gov.in). Since each centre uploads the website at a different time, only those who check the portal at that time will get a slot for the vaccination. Fixing a specific time for updating the portal will help in solving the issue.
Meanwhile, it has been found several staff at several vaccination centres are busy providing information about the updation time to their relatives and friends! This also hinders prompt service to people queueing up at the centres.
Additionally, registrations made in advance are often cancelled due to the shortage of the vaccine at the chosen centre.
Use ‘Search by District’ option
It is recommended to check the portal frequently for open slots, since there is no fixed time for centres to update the portal. Instead of searching by pin code, selecting the ‘Search by District’ option is likely to help in finding open slots.
Cross-checking too behind delay
Four time slots are issued daily (9-11 am, 11 am – 1 pm, 1-3 pm and 3-5pm) at vaccination centres. Centres are provided a list of beneficiaries and their details without mentioning the allotted time slot. This places an additional burden on the centres since the people manning the counters have to cross-check the time slot with the appointment slips.
Including the allotted time slots in the list forwarded to vaccination centres would help in removing the extra work and also to save time.
Overcrowding still at vaccination centres
Practical difficulties in registering for vaccination over the CoWIN portal have been continuing unabated even as the State reported a record 32,819 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
A huge number of people who had received the first dose have not been allotted time slots for the second shot, despite many of them being past the stipulated time frame. The Department of Health said a shortage of vaccines has been causing the delay in allotting time slots.
Initiatives to control overcrowding at vaccination centres have not been effective. Though only those who were allotted time slots were allowed in on Tuesday, crowds were seen in front of the centres for hours.
The situation is likely to be exacerbated with the opening up of the registration to all adults (18+) from Wednesday. The vaccine is not available in private hospitals. There are complaints of non-availability of time slots, despite people spending hours online.
CM's explanation
Vaccine shortage is behind the delay in allotting vaccination slots and its bulk allocation is necessary, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated.
“The shortage of vaccines is an issue. The current stock is 3,68,840 doses. We have asked the Centre for a bulk allocation of 50 lakh doses to overcome the issue. The distribution is being scheduled and time slots allotted for the next day based on the doses received. This results in the slots running out within a few minutes of updating the portal. The issue can be solved only after addressing the vaccine shortage, and updating time slots spread over several days on the portal,” Pinarayi Vijayan said.