Tech-savvy youths use a bot to track vaccine availability and accordingly, send updates through the .The slot-booking for COVID-19 vaccination for the 18-44 age group has yet again started, but several are finding it difficult to book an appointment. To find a solution to this, some witty people have come up with ways to get the procedure done through a bot system that alerts you every time a particular slot opens up in any government facility or hospital.
These groups are mostly formed by a smart bunch of techies who have launched bots on Telegram, WhatsApp, and other messenger apps to deliver similar services.Three youths, Suchdeep Singh Juneja, Likhit Agrawal and Alisha Nathani, have written a software code to track available vaccines in the state. The updates are sent on the Telegram app and the services are available in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur as of now for which the response so far has been overwhelming. The service has come as a blessing as the civic or the state authorities have failed to declare slot opening timings. Several have successfully been vaccinated after relying on this service.Hrishikesh Argade (28), who got vaccinated on Wednesday, told Mirror, “The Telegram group made the slot booking process extremely smooth and there are updates that are out every hour or half an hour. Earlier, I’d stress out by looking at the screen all day long. And honestly, a vaccine jab is need of the hour so no one wants to delay it.”Another beneficiary Nandita Bhusari said, “This app came as a blessing as we have to travel to the northeast a couple of months from now and hopefully by then both the shots will be taken. A friend recommended to join this group and it worked well.”
To help people in making the job simple, these web developers have come up with real-time trackers which send alerts when a vaccine slot is available in the nearby facility or hospitals.
These techies have come up with a Chrome extension, ‘Cowin Booking’, which reduces the workload drastically and makes the entire process smooth without any glitches. One doesn’t receive multiple OTPs or doesn’t have to enter multiple captchas and also, doesn’t log out of the app automatically.
Every day, thousands of people across the city are trying to log in to the CoWIN website for several hours a day to book the slot, but fail to do so. Those working from home, too, are stressed out and find it difficult to concentrate on work as they are esday glued to the CoWIN and spend most of their time on the website trying to book a slot.
Devika Naik, a 23-year-old MBA graduate who is trying to book slots for a while, said, “I am not at all aware of any such shortcut or groups that are on Telegram. I am just surprised as to how the civic authorities do not declare the slot timings, it’s just illpreparedness that people have to struggle for something life-saving.”
Manish Kanade, a 30-year-old IT professional, added, “I have been trying for close to one month but I haven’t been able to book a slot. I am desperate to get a vaccine as I have a 5-year-old daughter and my wife is expecting and I cannot take any kind of risk.”
U-45 Pune Dose 1 Vaccine, Pune Vaccine Availability, mhVaccine Tracker are a few Telegram groups through which people can find a convenient vaccine slot.
