Following several complaints that the lack of on-site registration in urban areas, especially Bengaluru, was inconveniencing senior citizens, the State Health Department started on-site registration in BBMP limits from Tuesday.
Senior citizens were finding it hard to upload documents online. This is mainly because most of them are not computer literate. It was a problem even for those who know how to use computers as the CoWIN portal either does not open or is very slow. “Although the portal opened, I was unable to get an appointment. I tried for an appointment in at least 18 vaccination centres but was unable to register on Tuesday,” said K.B. Krishnamurthy, a resident of K.R. Puram.
Another senior citizen from Malleswaram who had returned without getting vaccinated from K.C. General Hospital on Monday as on-site registration had not opened, said she had to take the help of a relative to register online.
Health Commissioner K.V. Trilok Chandra said on-site registrations had started in Bengaluru from Tuesday. “We are aware of the problems senior citizens are facing. But, we had to keep online registrations in urban areas to avoid crowding at vaccination centres,” he said.
Arundathi Chandrashekar, State Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), said the department wanted to stablise the portal issues before allowing on-site registrations in urban areas. “We have started on-site registrations in BBMP areas from Tuesday and will expand this to other urban areas in a day or two,” she said.
Admitting that the CoWIN portal issues had hit the second phase, she said: “There is a lot of eagerness among senior citizens and those above 45 with comorbidities to get vaccinated. This phase has been much better in comparison to the first. But the CoWIN portal issues are delaying the process of beneficiary verification and OTP generation. These issues have been resolved to some extent on Tuesday but as this is a pan-India problem, it will take a day or two to stabilise.”
Meanwhile, a total of 5,166 senior citizens and 1,147 above 45 years with comorbidities got vaccinated on Tuesday.
Cumulatively from Monday, a total of 7,426 senior citizens and 1,771 above 45 years with comorbidities have been vaccinated. Bengaluru Urban recorded the highest numbers - 766 and 1,387 - respectively, in both these categories, cumulatively.
