India Struggles to Jumpstart Coronavirus Vaccination Campaign

India’s efforts to begin registering its 1.4 billion people for COVID-19 inoculations stumbled Wednesday as the country struggles under the weight of a disastrous second surge of the disease.  

The government launched a website for all Indians 18 and older to sign up for a vaccination drive that is set to begin Saturday.  However, many people flooded social media with complaints that either the website had crashed or they were unable to make an appointment.    The problems with the website come as the health ministry reported 379,257 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 3,645 fatalities, marking yet another one-day record for fatalities. The new figures have pushed India’s coronavirus casualty numbers well over 18.3 million total confirmed cases and 204,832 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The second wave of the coronavirus has pushed India’s health care system to the brink of collapse, with hospitals at full capacity and an acute shortage of oxygen aggravating an already desperate situation.