Since the Covid-19 inoculation exercise commenced for the 18-44 age group, finding an available slot at a vaccine center has become a challenge, especially given that it is mandatory for this age group to make an appointment on the CoWin app.
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With an aim to resolve this, the National Health Authority (NHA), the nodal agency managing the CoWin app has opened up the APIs for vaccine appointments to the public.
An open API refers to a publicly available application programming interface (API) that provides developers access to a proprietary software application. For instance, you have a Google Maps API that integrates with food delivery or travel portal, or the UPI API used by a range of apps to enable easy payments.
In this case, the NHA has allowed anyone to access a set of requirements needed to communicate and interact with the CoWin platform. This has enabled developers to build third-party tools that allow users to set alerts for slot availabilities according to various parameters.
People can use these third-party tools to enter their details and they will get an alert whenever a slot opens up.
