PUNE: Post-vaccination glitches continue to trouble citizens four months into the Covid inoculation programme. First, it was finding a vaccine slot. Now, it’s securing a vaccination certificate. Suresh Shivdasani, a 77-year-old who got his second dose a month ago, said he’s still waiting for the confirmation SMS and a certificate confirming the second dose. He said, “When we got our first dose, my wife and I got a certificate after logging into CoWIN. But after the second dose (on April 26), we did not receive the message that confirms the jab. And when I checked the CoWIN website, I could only see the provisional certificate issued after the first dose. I think our details haven’t been fed into CoWIN as our names were entered into a register at the vaccination site.” Pimple Saudagar resident Uday Dere said, “My wife and I went to a government site in Dhayari for the first dose on May 7. Our trouble started when I noticed my wife’s certificate was not visible on the CoWIN website.” Dere said when he visited the centre the next day, he was told to book an appointment so that staff there could ‘fake’ a shot. “They said it’s the only way to enter missing data into CoWIN. I refused. We’re now at the mercy of the system,” he said. Seema Thaware from Aundh, who got a Covaxin jab over a month ago, said her records on CoWIN showed she hadn’t received the shot. “So I could not show a certificate for my second dose. I had to visit my hospital site three or four times to get the error resolved. The vaccination centre had not entered my details on CoWIN.” A central official from the CoWIN team said names have to be fed into the system immediately after a person is vaccinated. “But some hospitals record names in registers or Excel sheets. In such cases, vaccinators may miss names due to human error or if there’s a shift change. The system will then show a person has not been vaccinated,” he said. He added that the only workaround for recipients is to visit sites again and ensure their details are entered on CoWIN. “Ideally, vaccinators at sites should be updating beneficiary details on CoWIN as soon as a jab is administered,” the official said.
Pune: Many find post-vax certificates difficult to get
