“No Vaccination Centre is available for booking” – flashed on the screen of hundreds of Calcuttans aged between 18 and 44 years who were hoping to book their Covid-19 jab slots through the Centre’s Co-WIN portal.
Registration on Co-WIN of people of ages between 18 and 44 opened at 4pm on Wednesday and they will be eligible for the doses from May 1 (May 5 in Bengal).
Advertisement
Many complained that the website crashed and they could not register at all and many said it took them several attempts to get through because of delay in getting the One Time Password on their phones.
Those who could finally register said they were greeted with the message “No Vaccination Centre is available for booking” on the screen.
Several private hospitals in the city stopped offering slots for administering the first dose of a Covid vaccine on Thursday and Friday and some even failed to confirm appointments for the second dose as they are booked to the limit.
Covid vaccination centres are witnessing a sudden rush as many fear they won’t be able to get vaccinated in May.
Advertisement
The Centre has said all private healthcare facilities have to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers from May.
Private clinical establishments fear they may not get enough doses next month. This uncertainty has led to people queuing up at hospitals for the jab. What has added to the uncertainty, and contributed to the queue, is the health department’s advice to hospitals to give priority to second dose recipients.
A shortage of Covid testing kits has resulted in many suspected patients being turned away from testing centres, while several centres are taking more than two days to deliver the results.
A number of Calcuttans with Covid symptoms have complained that their test results arrived 48 hours after their samples were collected. In Salt Lake and New Town, many residents are unable to get tested as some testing centres lack the required kits.
Covid-19 testing centres run by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in Salt Lake and Narayanpur are not being able to collect more than 40 samples a day because of a shortfall in the supply of RT-PCR test kits, an official of the civic body said.
One private hospital is receiving around 1,200 calls every day from people between 18 and 44, who are seeking bookings for Covid-19 vaccine shots.
Another private hospital is having 10 to 12 young persons standing in the vaccination queue, carrying their Aadhaar cards. They want to book slots for Covid jabs as soon as vaccination for all adults opens across the country on May 1, fearful that doses might run out soon.
In Bengal, people between 18 and 44 will be vaccinated from May 5.
Private hospitals are flooded with queries about how the vaccination for all above the age of 18 would roll out, but they have no answers. Till Friday evening, there was no clarity from the central government about who would procure the vaccine doses and from whom.