How To Book COVID Vaccination Slot Using Google Assistant

New Delhi: In a welcome move, Google has decided to chip in to make the process of booking a COVID-19 vaccination slot easier in India.

Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan announced at Thursday’s Google For India virtual event a pilot of a Google Assistant-enabled, end-to-end vaccine booking flow in India.

From early 2022, beneficiaries will be able to book vaccination through the tech giant’s Google Assistant feature, according to Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan.

Google, which has collaborated with Indian government’s CoWIN platform, will help people book vaccination slots in English and 8 Indian languages — Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

The Union Health ministry had announced in August that vaccine slots can be booked through WhatsApp. In a few weeks’ time, there will be another avenue.

Here’s how you can book a vaccine slot through Google Assistant:

* Type any query on COVID-19 vaccine

* Enable Google Assistant and select preferred language from nine choices including English

* Enter beneficiary’s 12-digit Aadhaar card number, as well other details like full name, birth year (YYYY format)

* Use pin code or district name to search for vaccination centres, and choose from free or paid vaccination centre. Then select the vaccine name

* Select date and time slot that suits you to schedule the appointment