In yet another significant step to boost country's vaccination drive, the Health Ministry has tied up with tech giant Google in order to provide more information about vaccine availability and appointments for over 13,000 locations. 


The information was shared by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya who took to Twitter and wrote: "The @MoHFW_INDIA has taken yet another significant initiative to enhance access to #COVID19 vaccine."



Starting this week, for over 13,000 locations across the country, people will be able to get more helpful information about vaccine availability and appointments -- powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs. 


This includes information such as:


Availability of appointment slots at each center


Vaccines and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2)


Expectations for pricing (Paid or Free)


Link to the CoWIN website for booking


Here's Step-By-Step Guide To Book Vaccination Slot On Google:


Step 1: Search 'covid vaccine near me' on Google


Step 2: Check availability of slots & more


Step 3: Use 'Book Appointment' feature to book a slot


The above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centers near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and Google Assistant, a Health Ministry statement said.


In addition to English, users can also search in eight Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi.


Speaking about the same, Google said: "We will continue to partner closely with the CoWIN team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centers across India," the statement read further.


In March this year, Google started showing information on COVID-19 vaccination centres, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.


"As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms, news agency PTI quoted Hema Budaraju, Director of Google Search, as saying. 


According to Health Ministry data, as many as 1.33 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, the highest ever in a single day. With this, the cumulative doses given in the country under the vaccination drive has exceeded 65.41 crore