Never been to Uttar Pradesh, unvaxxed woman from Odisha's Bargarh gets message saying jabbed in Yogi's state

BHUBANESWAR: A woman in Odisha's Bargarh district, who is yet to take the first dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, was surprised to see a message saying she has been vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh. Jashobanti Sahu, 19, has neither been to the Yogi Adityanath-ruled state nor travelled outside Odisha ever since the pandemic struck the country last year.
Her husband, Sudhansu Sekhar, said the erroneous message about his 19-year-old wife having been successfully administered the first dose of the vaccine was sent to his mobile phone number.
"After clicking on the link in the message, we found a certificate of partial vaccination, which mentioned that she took the first shot at Mithaura Auratar at Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh," he said.
The vaccination certificate downloaded by Sekhar and seen by TOI shows she was administered Covishield on September 17.
When contacted on Wednesday, the healthcare authorities said they would inquire into the matter. A health department spokesperson on Thursday said the beneficiary was registered on the Co-Win portal and had booked an appointment for vaccination on July 26.
"On health grounds, she couldn't take it till date. As she was registered on the Co-Win portal, the UP verifier wrongly entered her mobile number instead of another similar number. Without seeing other details, the verifier marked her as vaccinated by mistake. That's how she received the message," the official said.
"Our team has spoken with the beneficiary's husband. He has been guided on how to proceed with his wife's vaccination," the official added.
The woman had registered her name at the Katapali high school vaccination centre near Bargarh town.
"She will get her shot soon. The data has been corrected at UP end," the official clarified.