Not able to schedule appointment on CoWIN portal? Here's what Aarogya Setu has to say

"Cowin Crashed", "Waiting for OTP", and many other hashtags started trending when the citizens of India got on to registering themselves for COVID-19 vaccine on the CoWIN portal. All those aged above 18 can register themselves on theCoWIN portal or using the Aarogya Setu app to get vaccinated against COVID-19 starting 4 pm on Wednesday, the Union Health Ministry said as the government gears up to launch the third phase of the vaccination drive from 1 May.

Within a few minutes, complaints of technical glitches, OTP delays, no slots available to schedule the appointment started surfacing on the Internet. Aarogya Setu, GoI's mobile application for contact tracing & dissemination of medical advisories to contain the spread of COVID-19 took to their official handle and clarified, "Vaccination appointments for 18 plus will be possible once the State Governments and Private Vaccination Centers schedule Vaccination sessions. Registration is happening on http://cowin.gov.in" [sic]

Netizens' face issues

As India witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases, it has decided to allow everyone above 18 years of age to get vaccinated from May 1. The inoculation process and documents to be provided to get the jab remains the same. Also, from May 1, the types of anti-coronavirus vaccine and their prices will be displayed on the CoWIN portal for citizens to make an informed choice at the time of booking an appointment at a private vaccination centre. It’s important to follow the covid vaccine certificate download procedure once you are vaccinated for official use in the future which will help you with travelling and second dose booking.

While those aged18to 44 years will be eligible to receive vaccination on payment from any of the private COVID vaccination centres (CVCs), citizens below 45 years shall also be eligible to receive a jab from a government CVC in a state or Union Territory which decides to lower the minimum cut off age for eligibility. 

As provided in the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategydocument, all priority groups, such as healthcare workers, frontline workers and citizens above aged 45 years or more (as on 01.01.2022), shall continue to be eligible for vaccination free of cost from government CVCs, oron payment from private CVCS

(With PTI inputs)