BMC called 4k health workers after CoWin app failed to send updates

Mumbai As the dust settled on Day 1 of the COVID19 vaccination drive in the city civic officials revealed that the central governmentrsquos CoWIN app failed to send messages on Friday to healthcare professionals shortlisted to get the vaccine This led to the BMC having to make around 4000 calls to ensure a smooth vaccination driveA healthcare professional gets the vaccine at the hospital on Saturday PicsAshish RajeCivic employees had started calling registered beneficiaries for Sundayrsquos drive too but as per instructions from the Centre the drive has been postponed Even though dry runs of the exercise were conducted across the state it has also come to light that the most important link mdash the CoWIN app mdash was not part of the trials as it was not ready thenA health worker gets the Covishield vaccine at Nair hospital on SaturdayldquoThe app was not ready at that time The dry run was conducted with only 25 people at each centre so we managed it without the CoWIN app We were informed that the app would be ready before the drive Though we sent messages through the app no one received them So we had to make individual calls to each personrdquo said a BMC officer on the condition of anonymity He said around 4000 calls were made Assuming they will get a message well in advance many people had made weekend plans when none cameHealth workers wait at Nair hospitalrsquos vaccination centre during the Day 1 of the driveSome people received calls in the middle of the night ldquoOne health worker got a call around 2 am to come for the vaccination There is still no clarity about vaccination for people with comorbidities like diabetesrdquo said another official connected to the drivelsquoWaiting for app to be readyrsquoCivic officials said that the app was not ready on Saturday either After instructions from state authorities the centres started registering peoplersquos names in computers On the other hand other teams started calling registered health workers for Sundayrsquos drive Then the central government said that entries must be made through CoWIN itself Finally after a discussion with the state health officers the drive was postponed and the BMC issued a public message at 10 pm Afterwards the state issued a clarification that the drive was not scheduled so the question of cancellation does not ariseMayor Kishori Pednekar said ldquoThere were technical issues with the CoWIN app The state government asked permission for offline registration but the Centre denied it The work on the technical issues is going onrdquo Of the intended 4000 1926 people were vaccinated on Saturday Meanwhile not a single case of adverse effects from the vaccine was reported until Sunday eveningldquoWith the kind of massive work we are happy that we could vaccinate around 50 per cent of the target There isnrsquot any case of adverse effects reported until now All the beneficiaries have been told to call their centre immediately in case of symptomsrdquo said Dr Mangla Gomare executive health officer of the BMC BMC officials are now waiting for further instructions from the Centre ldquoWe are ready with other infrastructure Once the app is ready we will start the drive againrdquo said Dr Gomare