Here's how you can use MapMyIndia's CoWin integration to find nearby vaccination centers

With the second phase of Covid-19 vaccines kicking off earlier today, the government opened up the registrations for citizens to apply for the vaccine via the CoWin website and the contact tracing app Aarogya Setu. Meanwhile, Indian digital mapping company MapMyIndia announced that the government has integrated the company’s search feature to locate nearby Covid-19 centers around the country.

The company said that users were now able to search for a nearby vaccine centre in a town city or village in the country using the MapmyIndia service - entering a search term like Siwan, Bihar or Panaji, Goa or even a house address such as S386, Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi. Here is how the feature works.

Read more: CoWIN app for administrators, Covid-19 vaccine registration on portal: Health Ministry

After a user downloads the MapMyIndia Move app, the process of locating a center around you while you are in your car is pretty straightforward. You have to enter your location or address or an eLoc (a digital address) so the app knows where you are. It will then locate the nearest Covid-19 vaccination center, and you can then find the relevant directions to get to that center by tapping it and begin navigation.

For those that are not able to download the app due to an incompatible device or lack of storage space, the feature to locate nearby centers will also work on the company’s website at maps.mapmyindia.com which allows users to search for the nearest vaccination center with a quick search for the location of their choice. When we tested the feature on a desktop browser and searched for centers in South Mumbai, it immediately surfaced results of a few centers in the area.

Don't miss: CoWIN app on the Play Store is fake, here's how you can spot it 

“To make the critical vaccination effort seamless, MapmyIndia has put all the vaccination centres across India on MapmyIndia’s maps. Users can use the MapmyIndia App (mapmyindia.com/move) and Maps portal (maps.mapmyindia.com) to search and find nearby vaccine centres and get directions to them. They can also write reviews and report issues they face there - to help authorities get feedback and take corrective action, where required,” said Rohan Verma, CEO and Executive Director, MapmyIndia in a press statement.