After the government released new guidelines for the integration of CoWIN with third-party applications last month, Paytm has announced that it will now allow users to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments directly from its app. This is in addition to its vaccine slot tracker that it had launched in May 2021.
CoWIN head R S Sharma said last week that over a dozen entities, including large digital companies like Paytm, MakeMyTrip and Infosys, are looking at approval for offering vaccine bookings natively, according to a report by the Press Trust of India.
In May, the Indian government released new guidelines for the integration of CoWIN with third-party applications in order to ease the way for such apps to offer vaccine bookings.
Uptil now, Google, Facebook and platforms like GetJab and Under45 released a slew of tracker bots, which allow users to track the nearest vaccination centre and get alerts in case a slot opens up in a centre near them. However, users still needed to register on the CoWIN portal and also book their appointments through the platform. The bots merely alerted the users.
But, with the integration of CoWIN with third-party apps, as long as a person is registered on CoWIN, they will be able to book their slots via an app like Paytm.
Currently, there is no news on the other apps or companies that will be getting the CoWIN integration.