190,000 get their first jab in India despite app glitches

NEW DELHI • India's Covid-19 vaccination drive hit a bump on the first day due to glitches in an app called Co-Win that is being used to coordinate the campaign, according to several officials involved in the immunisation programme.

It was still a successful start, though, with over 190,000 people receiving their first jabs and no one hospitalised for major side effects, the Health Ministry said.

The government-developed Co-Win app is supposed to help by alerting healthcare workers who are first in line to get shots, and by allowing officials to monitor and manage the entire drive.

But many health workers did not get the message on Saturday, said a senior official with the health department of Maharashtra state.

"We were planning to vaccinate 28,500 people on Saturday, but could do only 18,328 because of glitches," the official said on condition on anonymity.

India was aiming to vaccinate more than 300,000 people on day one, but only 191,181 people were inoculated on Saturday.

In the state of Odisha, officials said they were forced to use printouts due to issues with the app.

"We went with our plan B and contacted people to be vaccinated directly offline," said Mr Bijay Kumar Mohapatra, director of health services in Odisha.

Despite the hiccups on day one, India's health minister lauded the country's immunisation efforts.

"We have got encouraging and satisfactory feedback results on the first day," Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday.

"This vaccine will indeed be a "sanjeevani" (lifesaver)" in the fight against the virus, he added.

The ministry said "no case of post-vaccination hospitalisation" had been reported, although local media said a security guard developed an allergic reaction.

Meanwhile, some reports emerged about concerns over India's home-grown vaccine.

The authorities have given emergency-use approval for two vaccines - Oxford-AstraZeneca and the home-grown Covaxin, which has yet to complete its phase three trials - and plan to immunise some 300 million people by July.

Front-line workers such as hospital staff, people aged over 50 and those deemed to be at high risk due to pre-existing medical conditions are on the shortlist.

A doctors' representative body at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi wrote a letter asking for the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine to be supplied instead of Covaxin.

"The residents are a bit apprehensive about the lack of complete trial in the case of Covaxin and might not participate in huge numbers thus defeating the purpose of vaccination," said the letter addressing the hospital's medical superintendent. "We request you to vaccinate us with Covishield."

Vaccine hesitancy has emerged as a major concern, with a recent survey of 18,000 people across India finding that 69 per cent were in no rush to get a shot.

Scientists and doctors have called on the authorities to release Covaxin's efficacy data to boost confidence about the vaccine.

Covaxin recipients on Saturday had to sign a consent form that stated its "clinical efficacy... is yet to be established".

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE