False acknowledgement many on Covid precaution dose

TIRUPATI: Several people in the district are receiving SMS texts from the CoWIN platform stating that they have taken the ‘precaution dose of the Covid-19 vaccine’ when they haven’t had this dose yet.

A dozen people confirmed to Deccan Chronicle they have received such a wrong message.a

City resident Sai Kiran Reddy said he was yet to go for the precaution due to personal preoccupations. A week ago, a message popped up on his phone, saying he was successfully vaccinated with a precautionary dose.

This correspondent himself got a vaccination certificate from the portal without taking the second dose. “You have successfully been vaccinated with your precaution dose …. You may download your vaccination certificate from - https://cowin.gov.in – CoWIN,” the message from CoWIN portal read.

Suresh Naidu, a second-dose recipient in Renigunta mandal, said he too was surprised to see such a message. “When I went to take the precaution dose in June third week, my name did not show up on the database. A health worker said I was not yet eligible for the precaution dose. Two days later, I received a message saying that I was fully vaccinated,” he said with a chuckle.

A senior health officer explained, “There may be some technical glitch. We shall rectify this soon,” he said.

Health workers in primary health centres and ASHA workers are under tremendous pressure to meet the daily targets and, it is suspected that they are manipulating the data. Also, if the same contact number is used for two or more people, this could lead to receipt of such messages.