Image courtesy: Reuters
India is likely to roll out Covid-19 vaccines by January 13 and begin mass vaccination drive soon after that. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said during a press conference on Tuesday they are "prepared to roll out Covid-19 vaccines within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation date." Notably, the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) approved two vaccines Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for restricted emergency use in the country on January 3. To facilitate a smooth roll out of the Coronavirus vaccines, the Centre has developed a digital platform name CoWIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network). This app will monitor the distribution of the vaccine across the nation.
CoWIN is essentially an extension of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) system, which provides real-time information on vaccine stocks and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in the country. It is being enhanced to address the needs for distribution and tracking of COVID-19 vaccine. Now called CoWIN, the digital platform will be used to track routine immunisation, vaccine stocks, storage temperature in about 25,000 dedicated cold chain storage points across the country as well as movement of vaccines.
Here's all you need to know about this new app, including how to use it.
As the government prepares to launch the world's largest vaccination drive, the details of the CoWIN app are provided on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MeitY) site. This CoWIN system will be a subset of COVID India Portal which provides end to end management of COVID-19, the ministry said. The app will have five modules:
The Co-WIN app will give three options for registration including self-registration, individual registration, and bulk upload. For registration, people will need to upload a photo identity, which can be an Aadhar Card, Driving License, PAN Card, and others.
The official CoWIN app is currently in its pre-production stage and hasn't gone live on Google play store or any other App store. But there are reports that Google Play Store is offering three apps under the CoWIN name. Don't download these apps or provide them access to your personal data. You won't get any information regarding the vaccination process from these apps, and there's a possibility of your data being misused.
Currently, only officials have access to it and common people cannot register for COVID-19 vaccination now. It has the data of health officials who will be administered the COVID-19 vaccine first in the country. Already more than 75 lakh health officials have reportedly registered for the vaccination. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has already announced that frontline workers will be provided the vaccine for free. The cost of the vaccine for the rest of the population is not disclosed yet.
Once it's live, all smartphone users could be able to download the app for free and register themselves for a Covid-19 vaccine. Reports say that the app would be compatible for KaiOS users and work on Jio Phones as well.
