DNA Exclusive: Stampede for registration, failure of apps amid uncertainty on COVID-19 vaccine stocks

New Delhi: People all over the country were desperately waiting for one thing today and that is OTP or One Time Password. The reason is that the vaccine registration for phase 3 that makes all above 18 years eligible started today at 4 pm.

But the path to a vaccine is not so simple and despite successful registration on apps and web portals, the uncertainty remains.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (April 28) discussed how the opening day of vaccine registration panned out and why the uncertainty over getting vaccine still remains.

From 4 pm onwards, people aged between 18 and 44 thronged to book an appointment for vaccination on the three platforms – CoWIN, Aarogya Setu and Umang app.

The rush was so much that all three platforms crashed as people kept waiting for OTP to appear on their smartphones. People were disappointed and many of them expressed it over social media.

Despite the hurdles, around 80 lakh people got registered by 7 pm today and the number crossed 1 crore by 9 pm.

However, after registration, people did not get an appointment to get the vaccine. This is because the slots can be booked only after the state government and private hospitals come up with a schedule. And that will depend on the number of people registering and the availability of vaccine stocks.

This means that though the third phase of the vaccination drive was scheduled to start from May 1, the chances of it happening are slim. In all likelihood, the dates will be extended in most states.

Many states are not yet prepared for the next phase. There are some states which have not yet ordered vaccines from the two manufacturing companies – Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.

There is hardly any information regarding the details of agreements of purchase of vaccine between the state governments and the companies.

Only five states have been found to have placed vaccine orders. They include: 1. Odisha which has ordered 3 crore 70 lakh doses, 2. Tamil Nadu (1.5 crore doses), 3. Goa (5 lakh doses), 4. Assam (1 crore) and 5. Kerala (1 crore).

One thing to understand here is that two vaccine manufacturing companies have been mandated to provide 50 percent of the total vaccine production to the central government, while the remaining 50 percent will be shared between states and private hospitals.

Several states have so far stated that they are not ready to start the next phase of vaccination as per schedule. These include Rajasthan, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

It is quite clear that people above 18 years will have to wait further to get vaccinated.