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 th
e 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