With 27L hits/minute, CoWIN portal faces glitch as govt opens registration for 18+

New Delhi: Facing criticism over shortage of vaccines and price differences, the Centre on Wednesday started the registration of all citizens above 18 years of age for vaccination against COVID-19 on the CoWIN portal. However, the portal started to show technical glitches after the opening of registration at 4 pm as according to sources the site was getting almost 27 lakh hits a minute. Many people took to social media to complain about the technical problems they faced trying to register for the third phase of the inoculation drive scheduled to begin on May 1.

Many complained that it had crashed as a heavy rush was witnessed for registration after the government clarification that there will be no walk-in vaccination for the beneficiaries in the third phase. Many people were unable to login and register themselves to book an appointment. Some people complained that they were not able to receive the OTP, which is mandatory for registration. Those who were able to login said the portal showed vaccines aren't available for 18-45 age group.

Later, the Union health ministry clarified that the media reports that the server has crashed "are incorrect and are without any basis".

Sharing some of the statistics appertaining to the first three hours (4-7 pm), the ministry said that the portal has 383 million API hits, initially as high as 27 lakh hits per minute and a total of 1.45 crore SMSs have been successfully delivered. The government said that more than 80 lakh people registered within with 3 hours from 4 pm to 7 pm.

"These statistics indicate that far from crashing or performing slowly, the system is performing without any glitches. It is recording 55,000 hits per second and is completely stable. Detailed statistics relating to registration, vaccinations, can be seen on dashboard.cowin.gov.in," the ministry said in its statement.

By 9 pm, the CoWin dashboard showed that almost one crore people had registered for the vaccination.

At 4.35 pm, a tweet from the verified Twitter handle of the Aarogya Setu mobile application said the CoWIN portal is working and that there was a minor glitch at 4 pm, which was fixed. "Cowin portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 pm that was fixed. 18-plus can register," it said.

At 4.54 pm, a tweet from the same handle stated, "Vaccination appointments for 18-plus will be possible once the state governments and private vaccination centres schedule vaccination sessions. Registration is happening on cowin.gov.in."

Potential beneficiaries can register directly on CoWIN portal cowin.gov.in or through the Aarogya Setu app.

Though vaccines for those below 45 can only be availed at private COVID-19 centres on payment, States and Union Territories can decide to vaccinate those below 45 from their quotas negotiated with companies by setting minimum age eligibility criteria. Meanwhile, many experts believe that shortage of doses is going to be a real hurdle for the vaccination program. Several states have already been complaining about the shortage of vaccines. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday announced that the state has decided to vaccinate citizens in the age group of 18 to 44 against COVID-19 free of cost in government hospitals, even as a minister said the vaccination drive of this age group cannot be launched from May 1 due to unavailability of enough doses. Earlier on Wednesday, electoral strategist Prashant Kishore questioned the vaccination campaign for people between 18-44 years old. Prashant Kishor tweeted and said: "Forget about vaccines for people aged 18-44 years, there are not enough vaccines for ~35Cr people above 45 years, not till Aug. This can only happen with the Modi government." Meanwhile, the Union health ministry clarified that over one crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are available with states and union territories and they will receive an additional 57,70,000 doses within the next three days. The central government has so far provided 15,95,96,140 vaccine doses to states and union territories (UTs) free of cost. Of this, the total consumption, including wastage, is 14,89,76,248 doses, it said. The total COVID-19 vaccination across the country inched closer to the 15-crore mark with more than 20 lakh vaccine doses given till 8 pm on Wednesday. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 14,98,77,121 according to the 8 pm provisional report. These include 93,66,239 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 61,45,854 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 1,23,09,507 frontline workers (FLWs) who have received the first dose, 65,99,492 FLWs who have taken the second dose. Besides, 5,09,75,753 and 31,42,239 beneficiaries over 45 to 60 years old also have been administered the first and the second dose, while 5,14,70,903 and 98,67,134 people aged above 60 years have taken the first and the second dose.

Total 20,49,754 vaccine doses were given till 8 pm on Wednesday, the one hundred and third day of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.