My partner and I got vaccinated today in Bangalore.
Here's a thread about the whole process.
Booking a slot :
I was checking cowin to see which centres were offering the vaccines for 18+, saw that all slots were booked. (1/n)

I decided to make an excel sheet with the pincodes and the names of the hospitals to look at booking options later, when I refreshed the page I found slots at Apollo Seshadripuram. I immediately booked a slot for 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM(it was 11:50 PM), and so did my partner (2/n)

We immediately left and reached the hospital at 12:25.
Tips here : Search by Karnataka and district as BBMP.
Use Ctrl+F and search for 18+ to look for slots
At the hospital : We reached and were told that there was no stock of the vaccine for the day. (3/n)

One person mentioned that they were expecting stocks only on Monday. Another said it'll be available at 3PM. We decided to go back since there was no clarity.
I called Apollo helpline and they said I should just come next Thursday (6th May). (4/n)

Befriended a security guard at the hospital who I called at 2:45 PM, he mentioned that stocks haven't come in yet. He called me at 3:15 PM telling me that the stock has come and people are getting the shot. We left for the hospital and reached at ~3:30 PM. (5/n)

There was a huge queue, they were processing everyone who had booked since morning.The hospital also had lesser staff as some people said they weren't aware they would be getting the vaccine stock today. The people who were going in, were coming out only after 40-45 mins. (6/n)

We were told that there was a verification process (where the hospital team enters your details into an app that has been provided to them by the govt) and that was failing for a lot of people. (7/n)

People started trying to find patterns and speculating for whom it could potentially fail.( Eg : 1 PM slot is failing, for people aged 35+ it's failing).
All of this was useless of course, there was no pattern, it was random. (8/n)

Finally after much waiting ( ~3 hrs), it was my turn, I was verified successfully, but my partner's verification failed. He was asked to book slot on a different day. I went through, after which there was a billing counter where I paid and went through to get the vaccine.(9/n)

Meanwhile my partner had gotten an SMS saying , ' You have successfully been vaccinated with your 1 Dose with covishield'. Turns out, the verification had gone through for him but the app crashed at the hospital end. So he was let in and he got the shot as well. (10/n)

The ones who weren't able to get the shot were asked to book another slot.
Our experience and tips:
There seems to be obvious gap in the information across levels at the hospital. (11/n)

But, do remember that they have been doing this since March, and are working on 12-14 hour shifts. Please be kind to them. DO NOT BE A TECH BRO AND GIVE THEM UNSOLICITED ADVICE. (12/n)

If your verification fails, do check your SMS.The hospital app crashes but the backend call could be successful.
There was no social distancing given the confusion and large crowds,so double mask and follow all precautions. Of course I'm guessing this might get better soon (13/n)

Do carry water, something to eat, an umbrella ( for shade). Along with the obviously necessary mask, sanitizer, etc.
Obviously this experience comes with a lot of privilege to navigate complex systems. Do help whoever doesn't have this privilege get vaccinated as well. (n/n)

#Bangalore #VaccinationDrive #CovidIndia
@prajwalmanipal @darthdevi @nikhiljoisr @peakbengaluru