Indians can now book Covid-19 vaccination appointments on WhatsApp

The Ministry of Health and MyGov announced on Tuesday that the MyGov Corona Helpdesk on WhatsApp now allows users to locate their nearest vaccination centre and book their vaccine-appointment. WhatsApp users across India will now be able to use the chatbot by sending the ‘Book Slot’ message to the WhatsApp number +91 9013151515.

Powered by Haptik’s AI solutions and supported by Turn.io, the MyGov Corona Helpdesk on WhatsApp, since its launch in March 2020, has provided Covid-related information during the pandemic. Earlier this month, on August 5, MyGov and WhatsApp also 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.

“Since its launch, MyGov Corona Helpdesk, enabled with support from Haptik and Turn.io, has evolved into a go-to platform that is not only helping citizens with authentic Corona-related information but is now also aiding them in the process of vaccine booking as also finding vaccination centers and slots and downloading vaccination certificates,” said Abhishek Singh, CEO MyGov; president and CEO NeGD; MD and CEO Digital India Corporation (DIC) at government of India.

“It is enabling digital inclusion in the true sense as most people find the AI based interface enabled on WhatsApp easier to navigate. We are thankful to WhatsApp for their continued support in helping us unlock the true potential of this chatbot for citizen help and engagement throughout the trying times of the pandemic,” he added.

Talking about the new use-case launch, Shivnath Thukral, director, public policy, at WhatsApp, said since the beginning of the pandemic to now, WhatsApp has worked together with the ”singular aim’ of providing citizens with the most relevant benefits in order to help communities recover quickly.

“Whether it’s about providing authentic Covid-related information or enabling vaccine-certificate downloads or, now, about accelerating and easing the process of vaccination bookings for people, our collaboration has unlocked technology’s potential to extend benefits to citizens at scale,” he added.

Aakrit Vaish, CEO of Jio Haptik said the MyGov Corona Helpdesk started as a basic helpline for FAQs during the start of the pandemic. “We are thrilled to see it grow into a full fledged Chatbot that can book vaccine appointments and process certificates, in English as well as Hindi,” he added.

To contact MyGov Corona Helpdesk chatbot, citizens can save the WhatsApp number +91 9013151515 on their phones; start a chat by typing “Book Slot” and send it to the number. This will generate a 6-digit one-time password on the respective mobile phone number. Users then choose a preferred date and location, based on the pincode and vaccine type. All users can follow this sequence to get a confirmation of their centre and day of their vaccine appointment.