WhatsApp has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to enable users to book vaccination appointments through its platform, CEO Will Cathcart tweeted.
Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov and NeGD, took to Twitter to announce the launch of this new service.
“Now book vaccination slots by simply sending ‘Book Slot’ to @MyGovIndia Corona Helpdesk on @WhatsApp, verify OTP & follow the steps. Grateful to WhatsApp & @haptik for their continued support to build this chatbot,” he tweeted.
MyGov Corona Helpdesk chatbot was launched back in March 2020. The chatbot was basically built to answer COVID-19 related questions and prevent misinformation around the pandemic.
On 5 August, MyGov and WhatsApp had introduced the ability for users to download vaccine certificates from the chatbot; and so far, over 32 lakh certificates have been downloaded by users across the country.
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How to book COVID-19 vaccination slot via WhatsApp
Save the number ‘9013151515’ in your smartphone’s contact list.
Open WhatsApp and head over to the saved contact’s chat window.
Type ‘Book Slot’ and send it.
You will receive a 6-digit one-time password on your mobile phone, which you have to provide on the chat screen.
The chatbot will now show the names of individuals that are registered on the same number on the CoWIN app.
Now, type the number corresponding to the name of the member for whom you would like to book the slot.
Just follow the on-screen instructions from here to choose the vaccine type, vaccination centre location and more.
Alternatively, one can also book a slot for the vaccine via the CoWIN app.
India has vaccinated 58.80 crore citizens till Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. More than 3.29 crore unutilised doses are still available with the States and Union Territories.
India registered 25,467 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. Since January 2020 when the pandemic broke out, 3,24,74,773 people have tested positive for the virus. The toll climbed to 4,35,110 with 354 deaths over the last 24 hours.
(For more updates stay tuned with DNP India)
