The Government of India opened registrations for Coronavirus vaccination for the 18-45 age group earlier last week. Given the massive demand, it’s hard to find an open slot even if you’re glued to the Cowin website. Considering the situation, developers in the country have come together to create solutions that help people get an email or even Telegram alerts whenever an open slot is available nearby. In this article, we’ve picked the platforms you can use to find nearby vaccination centers and the websites for getting open slot email alerts.
1. CoWIN Website
- CoWIN Website
- Google Search and Maps
- MyGov WhatsApp Chatbot
- Facebook COVID-19 Vaccine Finder Tool
- Find Slot
- Get Email Alerts for COVID-19 Vaccines
- GetJab Website
- Vaccine Tracker on Google Sheets
- Get Telegram Alerts for COVID-19 Vaccines
2. Google Search and Maps
WhatsApp has launched a chatbot in collaboration with the Indian government and Jio’s Haptik to help users find the nearest vaccination center. You can send ‘Hi’ or ‘Namaste’ to 9013151515 or use this direct link to access the chatbot. However, during my testing, it took over 10 minutes to respond, presumably due to overload.
When it responds, send ‘1’ to find information related to Covid vaccination centers. In response to the next message, send ‘1’ again and wait for the reply. Then, you need to input your PIN code to see the nearest COVID-19 vaccination centers along with the available slots and age limit. If the chatbot takes time to respond, check step 1 and use the CoWIN website instead.
Visit Find Slot to Book a COVID-19 Vaccination Slot in India
1. GetJab Website
Developer Amit Agarwal, better known as labnol, for his popular Unroll.me alternative Gmail unsubscriber tool and other contributions, has created a vaccine tracker tool on Google Sheets. The project is open-source, and you can check out the source code on GitHub. Using this nifty tool, you can set up email alerts for whenever slots for COVID-19 vaccinations open in your area in India. Here’s how to use it:
Click this link and make a copy of the Vaccine tracker Google Sheet document in your Drive account by clicking the ‘Make a copy’ button.
After that, add the PIN codes you want to track for COVID-19 vaccine slots for the 18-45 age group in India. It is worth pointing out that you can add multiple PIN codes by separating them using commas. Add your email address, pick the intended vaccination age group, and set the frequency for checking the availability. Available options are – every day, every 12, 6, 4, 2 hours, and every hour. Once done, click on ‘Create Email Alert’ to sign up for COVID-19 vaccine slot email alerts.
Developer Berty Thomas has created a website to help people in the 18-45 age group find open vaccination slots in India. Also, Thomas has set up Telegram channels for district-specific slot alerts. You can find the appropriate Telegram channel for your city from this Twitter thread or the Under 45 website’s home page.
