CoWin booking Chrome extension: Here's the easiest way to book vaccine slot on the portal

With an aim to help citizens easily book vaccine slots, a freelance developer Sushrut Kasture has come up with a novel Chrome extension, 'CoWin Booking'. The extension is expected to reduce the workload and automatically book the vaccine slot in the nearest public health centre. Users will only have to fill the pop-up auto-fill application form and can have their slot booked automatically. 

Taking to his GitHub account, the developer, informing about his 'user-friendly' update, wrote:

This extension (CoWin Booking) is not for commercial use. A lot of similar scripts are run by programmers to ensure quick slot booking. To avoid this privilege bias, I have developed this easy, user-friendly extension.

The terms and conditions also clarify that the extension (CoWin Booking) does not collect or store user's personal data in any form. It is a verified system with the extension in OSS (Open Source Software). The extension does not directly use any of the Co-WIN API. In a nutshell, the technology helps in speeding up the process of vaccine slot booking. It’s important to download the covid vaccine certificate once you get vaccinated for officials to know your dates and location for the first/second dose of the vaccine

There have been several complaints regarding issues occurring in the CoWin application. Several technical giants including Paytm, Jio, Airtel, among others have come up with their respective mobile apps to find the nearest vaccine centres. Tech experts have also deployed bots on Telegram, WhatsApp, and other messenger apps to deliver similar services. 

India's COVID-19 vaccine drive

Currently, the drive is going on for all people above the age of 18. In January this year, the government launched the vaccine drive to combat the surge of COVID-19. So far, 20 crore people have been vaccinated out of the population of 138 crore. Several states have been floating global tenders to procure the vaccine due to a shortage in supply. 

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 22.75 crore, with 33,57,713 doses being administered on Friday, informed the Union Health Ministry. In the latest tally, it said 16,23,602 beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years received their first dose and 31,217 in the same category received their second dose.