CoWin to Block Users With 1,000+ Searches, 50+ OTP Request: Report

CoWin Slots: The decision has been taken to stop people from deploying bots or scripts for automatic slot booking

CoWin: Users who generate more than 50 OTPs for vaccine slot booking will be blocked. Image used for representational purpose.

(Photo: The Quint)

Government's COVID-19 vaccine slot booking portal CoWin will now block users who are carrying out more than 1,000 searches for vaccine slots, and those who are generating more than 50 OTPs in 24 hours.

The decision has been taken to stop people from deploying bots or scripts for automatic slot booking, reported Times of India.

“The idea is to ensure those booking slots manually do not end up competing with bots,” an official from the portal’s management team told the publication.

Moreover, he confirmed that such users will be blocked for 24 hours.

The report further added that the users who make more than 20 search requests for vaccine slots in a span of/within 15 minutes will be logged out of the system automatically.

The official said that CoWin portal already allow users to search for available vaccine slots without logging in. So, there is no need for users to search 20 or more times for available slots from one or two pin codes, or districts, in a short span of time.

This kind of activity results in a violation and raises suspicions about bots. "Such users are being logged out," he added.

(With inputs from Times of India)