Thiruvananthapuram: With the search for vaccines on CoWIN portal returning a nightmarish experience, more people are now depending on alternative platforms for information on vaccine slots available in hospitals.
Statistics showed an exponential countrywide increase in the members of 1,256 Telegram groups linked to two platforms, above45.in and under45.in, developed by Chennai-settled hobbyist programmer Berty Thomas, originally from Ottapalam.
The Telegram groups have 30.6 lakh subscribers, of which 1.78 lakh are from Kerala. As many as 1.21 lakh subscribers are aged under 45, while 57,024 are older.
Berty’s initiatives are the most popular among platforms notifying users, through Telegram app, of CoWIN portal updates.
Vaccination slots get filled up in seconds since parallel platforms drive huge traffic to the official portal. Chances of finding slots by searching the CoWIN portal are less without the aid of these platforms.
National Health Authority CEO Dr RS Sharma commended Berty's efforts.
"CoWIN APIs for discovery of vaccination slots have been opened up to third party developers to support wider outreach. When we hear about coders like Berty Thomas creating alert systems to assist their communities find available open slots, that is the cause of technology being furthered. Considering the skewed demand-supply, such innovations ensure vaccination centres don’t get overcrowded and that citizens only leave their homes on availability of vaccination slots. Such innovations don’t create a divide, as they are publicly available and democratised through applications such as Paytm or Telegram."
It is estimated the vaccine booking process has widened the gap between the tech-savvy and others.
Kerala lags behind
Vaccination slots available for the public in Kerala updated onto the CoWIN portal on Tuesday were relatively lesser than other places elsewhere, revealed an analysis by Berty Thomas.
Aged above 45
Kerala: 9,300
Bengaluru: 2.4 lakh
Below 45
Kerala: 2,000
Madhya Pradesh: 20,000+
