CoWIN portal crashes on opening day as people rush to register for vaccine

Earlier today, the CEO of National Health Authority said that they expected more than 10 million users to register on the portal and that the system will be able to take the load.

New Delhi: The CoWIN portal for vaccine registration crashed on Wednesday (April 28) soon after it opened as people rushed to book an appointment for themselves.

Several people took to social media to complain of the site not working.

"CoWIN server is facing issues. Please try later," read the error message on the portal that some users shared on Twitter.

Earlier today, the National Health Authority said that they expected more than 10 million users to register on the portal and that the system will be able to take the load.

"On many days, we have had around 5 mn people registering in a day. We expect more than double that number today. We think our system will be able to take the load when registrations open today," said RS Sharma, CEO of, National Health Authority.

The registration window opened at 4 pm for all people above the age of 18 years. They will be able to book an appointment to get vaccinated against COVID-19 through the portal.

Meanwhile, the Aarogya Setu app, which also has the facility to register for vaccination also faced issues as many users were not able to book appointments.

Phase 3 of the COVID-19 vaccination drive is set to kick off from May 1. Individuals will be required to furnish a valid identity document such as Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, Voter Card etc. After getting vaccinated they will receive a certificate for the same.

Vaccination will continue to be provided free of cost to the eligible population as defined earlier which include Health Care Workers (HCWs), Front Line Workers (FLWs) and all people above 45 years of age at Government of India (GoI) vaccination centres.