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]

Vaccination appointments for 18 plus will be possible once the State Governments and Private Vaccination Centers schedule Vaccination sessions. Registration is happening on https://t.co/S3pUooMbXX.

— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) April 28, 2021

Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register. pic.twitter.com/c94fpoURcT

— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) April 28, 2021

3. More Appointment slots will soon be offered. If slots are not currently available, please check again after sometime. We request your patience and understanding.

— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) April 28, 2021

Netizens' face issues

Look at this not even a single Hospital is allowing 18+ for appointment... What is the meaning of register than pic.twitter.com/sHeCckqRHZ

— Thakur pushp sengar🧢 (@pushpmmm) April 28, 2021

Server is crashing like anything, I believe this is also not well handled.. considering it will have huge load once the online registration will start for phasee but seems no steps take proactively. @PMOIndia @AmitShah @rsprasad

— Dheeraj Kumar Singh (@singhdheeraj251) April 28, 2021

No vaccination centre is available pic.twitter.com/rry4vFooIV

— Madhu Pandey (@MadhuPandey0) April 28, 2021

The @SetuAarogya app isn't allowing to register for 18-44 aged citizens till now.

And the link https://t.co/T1wD2KMDOw doesn't send OTP.

PS: Till now we're not able to book the appointment for the vaccination programme

— Aman Mittal (@_aman_mittal) April 28, 2021

45 plus registrations are being done right now. 18+ registrations are not happening. Why so? pic.twitter.com/OAO8CofdUE

— Rohit Dwivedi (@RohitDwi143) April 28, 2021

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)