Introduction

Hope you are safe and are able to manage these stressful times. The fact is not concealed anymore that Covid 19 has caused a medical emergency especially in India. After a ruckus of 8-9 months caused by this virus, all Indians are hands down ready to get the jab of vaccine doses. Most of the people have been busy booking their appointments on Co-Win covid-19 vaccine registration portal.

There are three vaccines which are made available in India. Covaxin- It is India’s first indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech with the partnership of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Covishield, developed by Astra Zeneca, University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Sputnik V, is being developed and manufactured by Gamaleya Research Institute, Russia. Unlike Covaxin and Covishield, Sputnik V is being imported from Russia. Mere manufacturing the vaccine doesn’t solve the trouble caused by Covid 19 at all. There is still a long way left after the development of vaccine that is from registration to getting vaccinated. The registration process is entirely online. The government has launched Co-Win for Covid-19 vaccine registration.

What is Co-Win Covid-19 Vaccine Registration?

Indian government took a smart and rapid decision by shifting the Covid-19 vaccine registration into online procedure. Co-Win is the portal solely for the purpose of Covid 19 Vaccine Registration. It is primarily an adjunction of the government’s electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (e-VIN), that was launched in 2015 for India’s Universal Immunization Programme. The IT Ministry with the help of The UN Development Programme developed an adjunction of the e-VIN subdivision as a comprehensive cloud-based portal for covid-19 vaccine registration in India. How to Book Appointment on Co-Win Covid-19 Vaccine Registration. Government tried its best to provide a hassle-free registration.

Below is the step-by-step process to register online:

• Open www.cowin.gov.in and click on register/sign in.
• Add your mobile number to get the OTP. After receiving OTP, enter the digits on the site and
  click verify.
• Enter all your personal details such as name, date of birth, gender on the ‘register for
  vaccination’. Once this done, click on register.
• After registering, you will get the option of scheduling the appointment. Hit the ‘schedule’
  button next to the person who wants the appointment.
• For scheduling the appointment, click on the calendar icon and choose the date as per your
  convenience.
• For vaccination centres, type the pin code of your city and click the search button. Then the
  centres available within your vicinity will appear.
• Click on the ‘Book’ button to confirm the vaccination appointment.
• Click ‘Confirm’ after verifying the details again. Last page will appear for the final confirmation
  on the booking. Verify and click ‘Confirm’.

Guidelines for Co-Win Covid-19 Vaccine Registration

Here’s some crucial information that you need to know before and after registering for you
vaccination on the Co-Win portal:

• Up to four people can be registered for the vaccination through one mobile number.
• Through the Co-Win portal, one can reschedule, cancel or change the vaccination
  appointments.
• In unpreventable situation, your appointed centre for the second dose of vaccine can also be
  changed through the portal.
• The portal will automatically show the vaccination centres list which have the vaccine doses
  (in case, you want your second dose somewhere else)
• An e-signed certificate will be issued to you after the second dose of vaccine.
• This certificate will be sent to your Co-Win portal and will be downloadable in your device.

Each vaccination record of the user is being recorded in the backend of the Co-Win portal.

Constraints of Co-Win Covid-19 Vaccine Registration Vaccination drive in such a huge country like India is indeed a mammoth task. Since the whole vaccination process is online, it was predictable that the vaccine registration procedure will have its flaws and especially when it is undertaken wholly by the Indian government. Registration for 18+ citizens witnessed more malfunctioning than that of 45+ citizens.

Cases of delayed OTP’S, failed loading, error were seen in most places. Majority of the people were unable to login in Co-Win portal just because of the delayed OTP. This is due to the heavy traffic which website faces because of the high vaccine demand.

Several personal documents are required for the registration such as photo ID, Date of Birth, Mobile number, etc. Filling these personal details, the privacy of the user also strikes in the mind once. Speaking of which, the portal doesn’t provide information about the developer.

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) cleared the air by stating that the data collected by the app will be available for access by national, state and district-level administrators. IFF also filed an RTI regarding the Co-Win’s Data Protection Apparatus, but all it could get was “no information is available”. The ministry tried to stow away the case by giving the reason that it can’t provide a copy of App’s Privacy Policy.

Keeping aside the privacy issue and technical glitches, the non-availability of slots and appointment still remains a serious trouble even after so many upgrades in the portal. The latest upgrade of 5th May, 2021 in the portal limited the APIs ability to show vaccine slots availability data in real time.

Users also complained that no mechanism is in existence by which Co-Win can notify users when a slot is available in their area. Although, the issue of non-availability of vaccine rests with the Centre’s supply and demand management but the various complications of Co-Win covid-19 vaccine registration only adds fuel to the fire.

India is a country where more than half of the population is still digitally illiterate. The majority of the population is deprived of even online access, so the vaccine registration for Covid-19 seems a far plan for them. This is a whole another serious issue to be worried upon.

Conclusion

India has been grappling with the Covid-19 disease from almost one year. Developing the vaccines acts as a hope for the humanity in these difficult times. As the government has launched the largest vaccination drive in India for Covid-19 disease, Indians have been utilizing the Co-Win Covid-19 vaccine registration portal for booking the vaccine doses. It must be said that the entire vaccination process relies on the online system, so does the troubles of online portal also prevail.

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