CoWIN new feature to eliminate duplication

The Centre on Friday introduced a new feature to eliminate duplication in certificates on CoWIN, offering relief to several beneficiaries who failed to get the final certificate despite obtaining both the doses because they used different cellphone numbers to register on the portal. So far, such beneficiaries were getting two first dose certificates showing different mobile numbers.

The feature comes two days after TOI had reported that there are at least one lakh cases in Maharashtra alone of people who are fully vaccinated but their names are being shown as due for the second shot. Users can log onto CoWIN, click on “raise an issue” and select the “merge multiple first dose provisional certificates” option.

Elaborating on the new feature, RS Sharma, chairman of the empowered group on Covid vaccine administration, told TOI: “CoWIN has an easy system of entry where users have to register using their cellphone numbers to create an account. Many people, due to whatever reasons, got their first dose by registering from one cellphone number and second dose by registration from another phone number. They should have got both doses with one account so that the system has their vaccination records.”


He said the CoWIN system does not work on de-duplication of entries and hence would not automatically prevent new sign-ins if the same person registers using another number.

However, some users are facing trouble despite using the same phone number. Prabhakar Jagdale said, “My parents are facing an issue with getting the final certificate after the second dose. Seems like the second dose was logged as first dose in the system by mistake. Not sure if it happened due to an error at the centre in uploading information or error on CoWin.”