As India prepares itself against the COVID-19 infections, the registration for the third phase of vaccination for everyone above 18 years of age, started at 4 pm on Wednesday. While the larger population of the country is wanting to get vaccinated, the government categorically mentioned that no walk-ins will be allowed for vaccination of people between the age of 18 and 45 years and self-registration will have to be done on CoWIN website or Aarogya Setu app.
Nearly 1.33 crore people got themselves registered for the vaccination on the very first day of the registration. The information was further clarified by a tweet from the official account of Arogya Setu that said, “We close the day with 1.33 Crore Registrations on Co-Win.”
Technical problems faced:
Minutes after the registration process started for all adults in India at 4 pm on Wednesday, the government’s portals for registration, CoWIN portal and the Aarogya Setu app crashed for the users all across the country. Many users even complained that the site was not responsive, while others complained that during the registration process, they were facing problems finishing the verification process as they were unable to receive the one-time password on time.
While the technical problems faced by the users made headlines, the Union Health Ministry clarified that the media reports about the server crashing “are incorrect and are without any basis”. Further clarifying their statement, the Ministry said that the portals witnessed more than 80 lakh people registering themselves within the first three hours of the registration from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
Previous registration records:
When on March 1, the registration process was opened up for individuals above the age of 60 years, around 25 lakh registrations happened on Day 1. Similarly, when the registrations for the vaccinations for people above the age of 45 years were opened on April 1, there were many who walked in for vaccination without registering themselves on Co-WIN portal.
According to various reports, around 14.80 crore people have their registrations on Co-WIN, out of which only 2.91 crore registrations were made online, while 9.33 crore people directly walked in at centres and registered themselves before vaccination.
‘Philanthropic gesture’ of SII:
While people in India were busy registering themselves on the CoWIN portal for their vaccine shots, Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce a cut in the price of the jab terming it as a “philanthropic” gesture.