Nandini YadavMay 05, 2021 17:51:38 IST
On 1 May, the central government started the third leg of its inoculation drive against COVID-19, where all citizens over the age of 18 can register themselves and get vaccinated. However, with a huge population of the country falling in this age bracket, the vaccination drive isn’t going as smooth as one might have hoped. Five days into the drive kicking off, people are still struggling to get a slot for the first dose of their vaccine. In some cities, the situation is worse than the others.
Bots are proving to be an effective solution to this problem.
(Also read: COVID-19 volunteers are being subjected to spam, scam and scum; here’s a Doosra option)
There are several bot-based services being offered right now that are helping people book their vaccination by sorting out information like the next available slot or the nearest vaccination centre. These bot services notify users via text, messengers or email.
Notably, these bots merely provide information on availability of a slot or a vaccination centre near you, but bookings will still have to be manually done by a user via the CoWIN portal (How to book vaccination appointment via CoWIN).
(Also read: How to locate the nearest COVID-19 vaccination centre via WhatsApp and Google Maps)
Bots can merely help you locate nearest vaccination centres and the track the availability of slots, but you will still have to manually book the appointment via the CoWIN portal. Illustration: tech2/Nandini Yadav
Below is a list of some of the COVID-19 vaccine-tracking bots available right now:
GetJab.in
The GetJab bot asks a user to share their name, email address, and district. As soon as a vaccination slot opens up in the user’s district, the bot notifies them via email to make the booking.
VaccinateMe.in
This vaccination-locator bot lets you search centres by district or pincode. It lets you apply filters like age group, paid or free vaccine, and pick between Covishield or Covaxin.
COVID-19 vaccine tracker for India
The COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker for India is a Google Sheet-based open-source vaccine tracker that lists out nearest vaccine appointment availability, which is notified to users via email.
Under45.in
Another one is Under45.in, which works the same way as the other bots, but this one sends district-specific alerts via Telegram.
FindSlot.in
FindSlot is a website that lets you search vaccination slots on CoWIN by city, pincode or district. It sorts out the information and shows you the list of vaccination centres around you that still have slots left to book.
Do note, all these bots only notify about availability of slots and vaccination centres around you; you still need to head to CoWIN and book the slot manually.
