Vaccine research applications all over India with some shots in sight

Tech giants, from Facebook Inc. to Google to Alphabet Inc., and startups from Paytm to HealthifyMe, are deploying a plethora of vaccine research apps and tools to help plan shots in a country where the doses themselves run out quickly.

India, which has 17.7% of the world’s population, has so far vaccinated 6% of its citizens, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker. With the country in the throes of a devastating wave of infections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi abruptly opened up vaccinations to all adults, resulting in high demand.

When the government vaccine portal opened for registrations on April 28 for people aged 18 to 44, the Co-Win website and app crashed. Yet more than 3.5 million had managed to register within an hour of opening. They are now waiting for their slots, with some calling the process a “lottery”.

Tech companies have stepped in to help:

• This week, Facebook released a vaccine finder in 17 languages ​​on its mobile app, partnering with the government to direct people to nearby places for vaccines. The tool displays walk-in options for those over 45 and a link to register and make an appointment.
• Google has worked with the Department of Health to “accurately show information about vaccination centers on Google search, Maps and Google Assistant,” the Cupertino-based search giant said. critical decisions on deployment times and locations.
• On Thursday, the digital payments start-up Paytm presented its Vaccine Finder to alert citizens to real-time availability and receive alerts via the Paytm chat. The tool scans availability in 780 districts nationwide, allows users to filter slots based on location and age, and helps book a slot.

Apps like those from Facebook and Google, and websites like VaccinateMe, Under45, FindMyVaccine, GetJab, and FindSlot say they’re trying to match supply and demand. Critics say they offer unfair advantages to tech-savvy Indians over millions of others who can barely read or have no access to technology.

“In the beginning, the reluctance to get vaccinated really slowed the process down,” said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, president of Manipal Health Enterprises Pvt, whose hospital chain across the country sees crowds of people jostling for drugs. blows, throwing caution to the wind. and, with only a small number of vaccines available daily, the discouragement of vaccines. “

This story was posted from an agency feed with no text editing.