Dates in March elude thousands, many get centre far from home

As thousands logged on to Co-WIN on Monday morning, they were surprised to see appointments for all of March were booked for many centres. Many were also in for a rude shock when the nearest venue shown was far from their homes. In Thane, some were given options nearly 40km away, report Sumitra Deb Roy & Manoj Badgeri.
Goregaon resident S B Rao’s son could log on to the Co-WIN website around 11am after making attempts since 7am on Monday.But he was repeatedly told all slots were booked for the entire month. “As Nesco jumbo centre in Goregaon is closer to us, we tried to book there, but there were no slots available for March,” said Rao. They landed up at the centre to try their luck at on-spot registration. Rao managed to get his name registered, but couldn’t get vaccinated despite waiting for over three hours. Rao’s son later tried to reschedule his appointment and found a slot open for Tuesday at SevenHills in Marol. Rao said two of his friends got appointments for March 28 and April 4.
Similarly, Surendra Menon, a south Mumbai resident, couldn’t get an appointment before March 29. “That’s when a friend told me that he managed to get registered on-spot at the BKC jumbo centre and even got the vaccine under an hour,” he said. Two other friends got appointments at KEM Hospital next week.
Mahesh Vijapurkar, 72, a Thane resident, said he was given centre options in Ambernath. “I was unable to register as they were far away. I tried the helpline, but it was futile,” he said. Surendra Bhatia tried opting for private facilities but couldn’t get the vaccine.