Jab rush forces Kolkata Municipal Corporation to suspend chatbot services – Times of India

KOLKATA: KMC had to temporarily suspend the WhatsApp Chatbot service to register for vaccination on Friday afternoon after a whopping 50,000 applications for the first dose of Covishield vaccine for citizens aged above 45 were submitted in under three hours. The registration through chatbot is for Covid-19 vaccine shots to be administered at the KMC’s urban primary health centres from Saturday.
Sources in the civic health department said the Chaotbot would be shut for a few days to clear the applications and open up fresh slots.
“We had no idea that the response would be so overwhelming for the first dose of Covishield vaccine among citizens in the 45+ group. We will now utilise all our manpower and infrastructure to ensure that the registered recipients get their vaccine on time. Till then, we may need to keep our registration process suspended,” Ghosh said on Friday.
According to a KMC official, the demand for Covishield (first dose) was so high that it would pose an infrastructure problem for them to entertain all. “We have opened 102 centres for Covishield first dose across 144 wards. However,these centres are also being used for the priority group. So, the pressure on us will be mounting,” a KMC senior health department official said. This apart, the KMC has kept 44 vaccination centres exclusively for recipients of second dose of Covaxin.