The head of the government’s tech platform said that some companies are seeking approval in India to provide online Covid-19 vaccine bookings. Paytm, Infosys and MakeMyTrip are among such companies which can help booking vaccine slots. This development comes as the country tries to make it easier for its huge population to book shots.

GOI relaxed rules last month to potentially allow third-party apps to offer vaccine bookings. The centre has taken back control of procurement from states following delays and shortages. GOI also faced initial problems with its own vaccine booking platform.

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R.S. Sharma, head of the government’s panel managing the CoWIN vaccination registration platform said, “Around 15 State agencies and private companies, which also include Indian healthcare giants Apollo and Max, and online pharmacy 1mg, have asked to be allowed to offer vaccine bookings.”

Softbank-backed digital payments app Paytm has more than 100 million monthly active users. The platform of MakeMyTrip has 12 million users. Their popularity is seen providing more options to Indians looking to book their Covid-19 vaccine shots. These platforms are particularly relevant if people are struggling with an unfamiliar government platform.

Mr. Sharma said, “It will work in favour of the country, the union of all the entities is better than just one individual platform.”

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MakeMyTrip CEO Rajesh Magow said that the company wanted to help people book their vaccination slots while1mg said that it was waiting for government approvals.

Much in vaccination will depend on a pickup in scarce vaccine supplies. Meanwhile, experts say that more booking options should help. Several software developers have already been using publicly available coding for the CoWIN platform. This is helping to create tools that send Telegram alerts to help people book slots. As of now, Paytm has enabled a notification feature on its app.

Berty Thomas, a software developer who had designed Telegram alerts for notifying people about slots said, “Right now, even if you find a slot using alerts, you have to still go to the government website and follow many steps. Companies will be able to give a better user experience compared to CoWIN.”

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Mr. Sharma said that vaccine supplies should improve going forward & praised the CoWIN platform. He said that at least three African nations-Zambia, Nigeria and Malawi, had enquired about using it for their own vaccination drives. He also said, “We will give them the portal free of cost and they can customize. This is highly scalable.”

Out of India’s 1.38 billion people, only 3.5% has been fully immunised against Covid-19. Health officials are concerned that the pace will have to ramp up to avoid further deadly surges of the virus, like the one that swept the country in the spring.