On first day, 1 cr register for 18-plus vax despite glitches

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 28

Those aged above 18 rushed to register for vaccination starting from May 1 with over 1 crore registering on CoWIN portal on the opening day despite early glitches.

The portal opened for registrations at 4 pm, but did not accept log-in by 18-plus people saying, “valid only for 45-plus”. A few minutes later, the government restored the platform tweeting: “CoWIN portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 pm that was fixed. 18-plus can register.”

“Registration is happening on cowin.gov.in, but appointments will be based on slots made available by the states and private hospitals later,” the Health Ministry said. Portal chief RS Sharma said around 80 lakh registered during the first three hours.

MyGov CEO Abhishek Singh said over 1 crore adults registered on CoWIN on Day 1. Despite an enthusiastic registration spree and lowering of Covishield cost for states by the Serum Institute of India (from Rs 400 to Rs 300 a dose), Opposition-ruled Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Kerala said they would not be able to roll out 18-plus vaccinations from May 1 because vaccine manufacturers had said they had to meet Centre’s commitments first.

The Punjab Government placed an order for 30 lakh Covishield doses with the SII two days ago, but was told there were no stocks till May 15. Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Congress-JMM ruled Jharkhand were also told the same.

The Centre, meanwhile, said the states and UTs had been provided around 16 crore vaccine doses free of cost and 1,06,19,892 were available with the them as of today.

Even as the Centre claimed there was no shortage of stock, several vaccine centres across the country turned back people whose second doses were due.

Concern over wastage

High vaccine wastage remains an issue with northern states. While Haryana reported 5.72% wastage, the figure was 4.98% in Punjab, 3.46% in Chandigarh, 2.58% in J&K and 2.08% in Ladakh.

Fresh cases 3,60,960
Deaths in 24 hrs 3,293
Mortality Rate 1.12%

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