Within three hours of commencement of registration for 18-44 years age group, more than 80 lakh people registered themeselves on the CoWin portal for COVID-19 vaccination.
"People are registering on the platform, mostly of age-group 18-44. It witnessed more than 80 lakh people registering themselves on the portal, within 3 hours from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm," the government said in a release.
The CoWin software is a robust, dependable and agile technology which offers anytime, anywhere registration for COVID-19 vaccination. The capacity of the servers and other parameters have been ramped up to match the unprecedented scale of immunisation so that the CoWin system provides citizen-centric services, it said.
"Inclusivity, speed and scalability have been kept in mind while designing the unique digital platform with all components being portable, synchronous without excessive and unnecessary dependencies," it added.
As soon as the registration opened for those above 18 years at 4 pm, many users complained on Twitter that they were not able to register. Some of them said they were not able to get one-time password (OTP). However, the government said that the server supporting the CoWin digital portal continues to work smoothly at its highest efficiency.
Also read: COVID-19 in India: Where oxygen concentrators are coming from
The system is recording 55,000 hits per second and is completely stable, it said, adding that more than 1.45 crore SMS were delivered successfully. The government has clarified that while those in 18-44 years age group will be able to register, they will be able to get an appointment for vaccination when state governments and private vaccination centres schedule their sessions on the platform.
As India battles the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the government has announced that everyone above the age of 18 years would be eligible to get the vaccination against the virus from May 1.
Under the phase III of the vaccination programme, vaccine manufacturers have been permitted to release up to 50 per cent of their supply to state governments and in the open market at a pre-declared price. States have also been empowered to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers, as well as open up vaccination to any category of people above the age of 18 years for the same.
Following Centre's request, Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday said it has decided to reduce the price of its Covishield vaccine to Rs 300 per dose for state governments from Rs 400 per dose announced earlier.
Earlier, SII had announced price of Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals. Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech has pegged price for its Covaxin at Rs 600 per dose for state government, Rs 1,200 per dose for private hospitals, and $15-20 for export.
The central government had asked both the manufacturers to lower the prices for their vaccines.
Also read: Serum Institute reduces Covishield price for govt hospitals to Rs 300