The vaccination drive for the ages 12-14 across India saw a slow response on the first day of its launch with many complaining about registration issues on the CoWIN platform, as per sources.
The CoWIN platform, responsible for vaccine-slot booking, started taking fresh registration for the beneficiaries only after 2 pm, as per the State officials responsible for vaccination drive BusinessLine interacted with. Besides this, the upcoming Holi festival also deterred people from turning up to the vaccination centres.
In the national Capital, very few parents turned up at vaccination centres with their children.
“The CoWIN platform began working only after 2 pm for 12-14. We had to do manual registration. However, it worked smoothly later,” a State-level immunisation officer who didn’t want to be named told BusinessLine. He expects the immunisation programme to pick up after Holi.
State performance
As per sources, in Uttarakhand 4,075 vaccine doses were administered to those in the 12-14 age group. Meanwhile, in Rajasthan, 26,880 beneficiaries were administered the first dose of Biological E’s Corbevax, the State said in a statement. Besides this, 2,604 beneficiaries above 60 years of age received their precautionary doses in Rajasthan.
In Gurgaon, 6,587 in the 12-14 age set received their first dose, while 187 beneficiaries above 60 years got their precautionary shot, its chief medical officer Virender Yadav told BusinessLine. Similarly, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam also gave the same feedback about the vaccination drive. According to one of the Northeastern immunisation officers, the vaccination drive witnessed a timid response as it was announced suddenly.
“The inoculation programme was announced suddenly, that’s why there was a less turnout at the vaccination centers but it will pick up very soon,” said one of the State officials.
Free doses initially
It is to be noted that the government has delivered 4.8 crore of Corbevax vaccines to the State/UTs against the 4.7 crore children in the 12-14 age group. Initially, the vaccine doses will be administered for free at the government centres. Later, as per government sources, private vaccination centres will also be involved.
On Wednesday, India administered 16.12 lakh vaccine doses till 8 pm in the evening taking to a total of 180.68 crore vaccinations done so far, as per the CoWIN Dashboard. Apart from this, India reported 2,876 Covid cases on Wednesday with 98 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8 am. The daily positivity and the weekly positivity rate in the country stood at 0.38 per cent and 0.44 per cent, respectively.