Tech experts raise concerns over CoWIN, say it slows out vaccine rollout

Tech experts in India have raised concerns over the CoWIN website, where people book for COVID-19 vaccinations, to be designed only for tech-savvies and that it jeopardises equitable vaccine rollout, reported Reuters. India has faced criticism for slow vaccine campaigns and rollouts as it battles against the second wave of coronavirus that is bringing about 350,000 fresh cases every day in the country. 

In a bid to smoothen the process, a group of computer experts used the publicly accessible coding of the platform to design websites that post results regularly after automated searches on the CoWIN website, reported Reuters. Alerts are notified over email and routed to many Telegram, a texting app, chat groups where thousands wait.

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Only two percent of the entire population of 1.3 billion have been fully inoculated, so far, reported Reuters on Wednesday. The government created a CoWIN website to open up a vaccination drive, last month, for the adults starting from May 1. But the registrations online were made mandatory to book a slot, which has been hard to come by. The demand has outweighed the supply, which has caused slow supply and roll-out.

35-year-old Berty Thomas automated a search to book a slot for himself and then created a website, under45.in, which checks for slots and sends alerts to around 100,000 people across 60 Telegram groups in Chennai. “I feel happy I’m able to use my skills to help people get vaccines,” said Thomas, an investment banker based in Chennai, reported Reuters. Shyam Sunder another tech expert, designed the website, getjab.in.

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RS Sharma, chairman of the government panel managing the CoWIN platform, while talking to Reuters however denied the claim that there was an unfair advantage to tech-savvies.