The first day of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive in Bengaluru on Monday was initially marred by delays due to unresponsiveness and glitches in the Co-WIN 2.0 portal. This phase of vaccination is for citizens above 60 years of age as well as citizens above 45 years of age with comorbidities. While there was a delayed start in some places, other hospitals have decided to start the drive only on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The registration process online was set to begin at 9 am and the exercise at notified hospitals was to begin at 11:30 am. However, officials in some hospitals told TNM that the portal was not opening for them well after 11:30 am to verify the beneficiaries as prescribed by the Union government guidelines.
One officer looking after vaccination exercise in KC General Hospital, said, “There are many people who reached our hospital well before 11:30 am, when the drive is set to begin. However, the app was not opening from our end. They brought their credentials after registering but we were not able to do the verification.”
It is important to note that the only place for beneficiaries to register for vaccination is the Co-WIN portal (https://selfregistration.
Samarth Mamador, who was helping his grandfather get registered on the portal said for the first one hour since 9:30 am he could not get the One Time Password (OTP) required. “We were waiting for more than an hour at the CMI Aster Hospital. So, we went back home and returned when the process had begun which was only after 1 pm.”
Meanwhile, officials at the CV Raman Nagar Hospital said that they will only start the process on Wednesday as there was “a lot of hiccups” in the Co-WIN portal and they could not start the process on Monday.
Similar problems were observed at the government-run Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru. Dr Tanveer, the nodal officer for vaccination, said the few people who turned up after registering were told to leave as Co-WIN was not loading for the vaccine administrators. Following this, the hospital admin decided that they will start the drive for senior citizens only on Wednesday.
Some officials said that some beneficiaries who reached the facilities without prior registrations reported that the Co-WIN portal was not loading for them until much after 9 am. Dr Trilok Chandra (IAS), Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare in Karnataka said that there was an issue of mapping from the hospital-end in six government hospitals. "This has been rectified now. Rest of the locations, the drive went fine as planned. This issue was not seen in any of the districts."
Manipal Hospitals, which is a private facility, said that it too was able to start its vaccination drive following the Union government guidelines from 1 pm. Ramaswami Parthasarathy, a 97-year-old, was the first to get vaccinated in this facility.
“We at Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road have started the vaccination drive today, 01.03.2021 at 1.00 pm. The registrations for the vaccination can be completed online through Co-WIN, and people at the age group of 60 years can directly walk-in for the vaccination. Senior citizens at Bengaluru have started getting the vaccination at Manipal Hospitals today. We are cooperating with the government and abiding by the standard procedures and protocols for the vaccination drive,” Dr Manish Rai, Hospital Director, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road said.
As reported earlier, private hospitals will charge Rs 250 for the vaccination process while it will be free in government hospitals during this phase.
Some private hospitals said that even though they have received vaccines they are yet to be given access by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
The vaccination drive is scheduled to be held four days per week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday — in government facilities, and on all working days in private hospitals, with up to 200 vaccines being administered per session site. Facilities for on-site registration will be made available after a few days.