CoWin tightens rules for slot info sharing with third parties

The National Health Authority (NHA) has introduced restrictions to access of CoWin portal’s vaccination slot availability information by third parties. While this move has come amid reports suggesting the misuse of the portal’s open APIs by some coders and software programmers to set alerts and book slots, the NHA said it was done to “ensure scalability” of the platform and to prevent cyberattacks.

Now, for third-party entities sourcing slot availability information from CoWin’s database, such data will be made available with a delay of up to 30 minutes. Additionally, the CoWin portal has been geo-fenced to limit access to the site from an Indian IP address. This has caused problems to non-residents trying to book a vaccination appointment for someone in India.