India’s Covid-19 vaccination portal CoWIN crashed on Wednesday, minutes after the commencement for the registration of those aged 18 and above. Glitches on the Aarogya Setu App were also reported. Later, both the platforms were back online, letting those people who are eligible to register for the vaccine.
People who were trying to register for the vaccine, shared their experience with the portal on social media.
RS Sharma, National Health Authority chief, in a tweet reported that 79.65 lakh people registered for vaccinations on the first day. He also added that a traffic of 55,000 hits per second was seen.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/There have been 79,65,720 registrations on Co-WIN today, most of these in the last three hours (16:00-19:00) and mostly of 18-44 age group. We have seen a traffic of 55,000 hits per second. System functioning as expected. pic.twitter.com/AgLt3fMB7Z
— RS Sharma (@rssharma3) April 28, 2021
Complaints from people who were unable to load the CoWIN website or not receiving OTPs to log in to the platform poured in a registrations opened at 4 pm
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register. pic.twitter.com/c94fpoURcT
— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) April 28, 2021
Whereas, people who received the OTP, reported that they were unable to type in on the portal’s website. However, the portal is now back online and registration is open to all adults.
Sharma on Wednesday, told media outlets that, “On many days, we have had around 5 million people registering in a day. We expect more than double that number today.” He further added that, “We think our system will be able to take the load when registrations open today,” Sharma said.
Earlier this month, Sharma mentions that, “Only registrations will happen on April 28. Registrations with documents and IDs.”
According to RS Sharma, “This phase onwards, Centre will not be responsible for non-booking of appointments at designated vaccination centres. For private vaccinations, that would be the responsibility of private hospitals. First-aid vaccination at centres would be the responsibility of the states. Vaccinations for those above the age of 45 and 60 will continue as per usual at designated vaccination centres of the government.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, earlier this month said that, the central government made it mandatory for those aged between 18 and 45 to register themselves on one of the two portals in order to get vaccinated. No walk-ins will be allowed in the initial stages of the third phase.
India on January 16 this year, started its nationwide inoculation drive, where more than 14 crore doses of the two Covid-19 vaccines approved for emergency use that is, Covaxin and Covishield, have been administered across the country to this date. Vaccination is being made free of cost for those aged between 18 and 45, by several of states.
While, frontline workers and healthcare workers were vaccinated in the first phase, with the central government bearing the expense of the life-saving jabs. Whereas, during the second phase of vaccinations were opened for those aged 45 and above.
