COVID-19 vaccination drive halted in these states, here's what happened

The vaccination drive had to be suspended at some places mostly due to a glitch in the CoWIN app.

New Delhi: India on Saturday undertook the biggest, nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive and as many as 1,91,181 healthcare and frontline workers received the first dose. 

The nationwide vaccination drive was carried out during 3,352 sessions by 16,755 specially trained personnel. Also, an additional 3,429 people from defence institutions of the Indian Army and the Indian Navy, too were immunised.

However, vaccination drive was suspended at some places mostly due to a glitch in the CoWIN app.

Vaccination drive halted in Maharashtra

The COVID-19 vaccination on Saturday was temporarily suspended in Maharashtra, as per the Health Department of the state. As per an official statement, the vaccination has been postponed for two days on January 17-18 due to technical issues with the CoWIN App. Due to the technical fault in the app, the target could not be met, now the COVID-19 vaccination drive will not be done through the offline medium. "While implementing the COVID-19 vaccination campaign today (January 16, 2021), it was noticed that technical problems were occurring in the CoWIN app. Efforts are being made by the Central Government to address this problem," the statement read.

Vaccination drive halted in Odisha

Meanwhile, Odisha has decided to halt the Covid-19 vaccination for Sunday to observe those who received the vaccine on Saturday. “We want to observe those who took the vaccine,” the state additional chief secretary (health) said. The vaccination drive will continue from Monday.

Also, in states like Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, some people reported that they did not receive the mandatory message scheduled to get the vaccine which is generated from the CoWIN portal.

While several centres at Karnataka reported problems with CoWIN due to server crash. The app had crashed during a dry run in Bengaluru on 9 January too and the health workers had to rely on manual entry.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the vaccination drive, hailing it as a major achievement. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also held a video conference with the health ministers of all states and UTs, complementing them on the successful rollout of the vaccines.

(with agnecy inputs)