Centre develops 'CO-WIN' mobile app for COVID-19 vaccine delivery

New Delhi, Dec 9: With the COVID-19 vaccination likely to come soon, the health ministry on Tuesday revealed all the details of how the entire vaccination program will be conducted. In addition to the details, the ministry also introduced a new digital platform called 'CO-WIN' for COVID-19 vaccine delivery. There will be a new mobile app as well with the same name that will allow people to register for the vaccine.

 

Speaking about the steps taken by the Union Government for rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine, Rajesh Bhushan, Health Ministry Secretary, said, "When such a huge vaccination drive is taken up, it becomes necessary to have institutional mechanisms at the level of States, Districts and Blocks that will inspect and supervise the entire process."

 

The secretary informed, "A new digital platform for COVID-19 Vaccination Delivery called 'CO-WIN' is being used for this purpose. This user friendly mobile app for recording vaccine data is working as a beneficiary management platform having various modules. In the process of forming a database of Healthcare Workers, which is in an advanced stage across all States/UTs, data is presently being uploaded on the Co-WIN platform."

 

The app will have separate modules for administrator, registration, vaccination, beneficiary acknowledgment and reports. Once people start to register for the app, the platform will upload bulk data on co-morbidity provided by local authorities. The CO-WIN. app is yet to be available for smartphone users and it is expected that it will be publicly available soon. The different modules of the platform cater to the entire process of COVID-19 vaccination starting from registration to verification.

 

The government will be vaccinating priority groups in the first two phases: frontline workers including all healthcare professionals in the first stage and emergency workers in the second stage. While the data of these people are already being compiled by the state governments, from the third stage onwards where people with co-morbidity will be given vaccines, self-registration will be introduced. And that will happen through the Co-WIN app.

 

“Every single India who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated, which roughly includes one crore healthcare workers, two crore frontline workers, and 27 crores of prioritized age groups,” Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday quoting the proposal of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration. 

 

The Health Secretary also informed about the current stage of the eight vaccine candidates in India. PM Narendra Modi has also personally interacted with and encouraged all vaccine manufacturers and scientists, he added. Five of them, namely Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech, ZyCoV-D manufactured by Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V which is being manufactured by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and NVX-CoV2373 which is another vaccine by SII are in various stages of Clinical Trial.

 

Out of these, Covishield and Covaxin have also applied for Emergency Use Authorization. This apart, a Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Ltd, mRNA based HGCO 19 vaccine by Genova, Pune; and an Inactivated rabies vector platform vaccine by Bharat Biotech are in various stages of pre-clinical trial. Vaccine requires 2-3 doses in intervals of 3 to 4 weeks, further informed the Health Secretary. He, however, also cautioned that precautions must be undertaken even after vaccination.

 

The Health Secretary also informed that maximum active cases are in Maharashtra, followed by Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Delhi. These five states contribute 54% of total active cases in the country.