Finding vaccination slots on the CoWIN website hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for the 18-44 age group. But these new bots and services make the process simpler, ensuring you get your jab in a seamless manner
Bots make it easier for users to find slots in vaccination centres near their homes
When the central government began facilitating registrations for citizens over the age of 18 on the CoWIN website, the battle to secure a slot among crores of entries became increasingly tough and many began to despair. Unlike the drive for those above the age of 45, the younger age bracket did not have the option for on-site registrations and were left to try their luck on the website, with only a few managing to find a slot initially.
Paras Mehan and Rohan Rajpal
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In May, Rohan Rajpal and Paras Mehan, two students of Indaprastha Institute of Information Technology in Delhi, were faced with the same hassle. To combat this predicament, they created a bot for the messaging app Telegram — one that notifies users of vacant slots in nearby hospitals and inoculation centres, to help them book a slot in a smooth manner. A month after its inception, the bot has amassed over one lakh users from various parts of the country.
“When registrations opened up in May, I tried hard to find a spot for two consecutive days. I would randomly check slot openings on the CoWIN website, which was time-consuming. I realised that this is something that could clearly be done by a computer that saves manpower in terms of logging in over and over again,” Rajpal says.
The bot has also benefitted people in remote regions of the country. “While there are many solutions built for metro cities, our bot also caters to regional areas. Since we received requests from people in remote places who didn’t know how to use Telegram and access the bot, we have also made a video in Hindi to explain the processes to them,” Mehan explains. The bot can be accessed by searching and selecting the username ‘cowinalertsbot’ on Telegram, and simply pressing the ‘Start’ button.
But it’s not just this one. Several other such bots have been created over the past month to help citizens book a vaccination slot efficiently. We have curated a list of five such services, especially for those above the age of 18, to aid in the process of booking. But please note that all these bots will only notify you about the availability of slots; users must book their slots manually on the CoWIN website.
Keeping on track
Available in the form of a Google Sheet, this service works as a vaccine tracker for all parts of the country. It’s an open source document, and users are meant to make a copy of the Google Sheet in order to access the information in it. They are then notified about the availability via email.
Log on to: Search for ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker for India’ on Google
Help at hand
A service called vaccinateme.in was launched by fitness app HealthifyMe. It uses the CoWIN API (application programming interface) to send users notifications for available slots via WhatsApp. The platform also provides resources for those who wish to donate to Covid-19 relief efforts, along with mental health assistance from experts.
Log on to: vaccinateme.in
Easy to find
In May, digital payments platform Paytm launched the ‘Vaccine Finder’ service that checks the availability of vaccination slots and sends alerts when slots near a user’s residence open up. This reduces the hassle of having to refresh the CoWIN page repeatedly.
Log on to: Google Play Store to download the Paytm app
Scripting alerts
A Telegram-based alerts bot, under45.in uses state and district information to send alerts via the app. It now has 2,41,497 subscribers and uses a script to poll the CoWIN API for different districts to find slots and automatically send alerts to the Telegram channel. The whole process is simple to undertake.
Log on to: under45.in
Filter it out
findslot.in is a website that allows users to book vaccination slots on CoWIN using filters such as the city, district, and pin code they live in. It then displays a list of inoculation centres, both free and paid-for, with available slots. This site also uses the Co-WIN API to help users navigate better.
Log on to: findslot.in
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