Coronavirus | Health Ministry meets State officials on CoWIN use

Software forms core of vaccine administration

Work going on to construct COVID-19 vaccine storage facility at Kanjurmarg in Mumbai.

The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) held an online conference on Sunday with administrators from States and Union Territories on the CoWIN software which forms the backbone of the last mile COVID vaccine administration .

The meeting was chaired by Ram Sewak Sharma, Chairman of the empowered group on Technology and Data Management to combat COVID-19 and member of the national expert group on vaccine administration of COVID-19 . Participants included State principal secretaries, directors of the National Health Mission, State immunisation officers and senior officers of the Health Ministry.

Coronavirus | First phase of vaccination to start on January 16

All vaccine-related information on when beneficiaries were inoculated, their experience and schedule for subsequent doses had to be captured in “real time,” and was “non-negotiable,” it was stressed.

Via adhaar cards

Officials would have to ensure that there were ‘no proxies’ at all, and all beneficiaries would have to be uniquely and undeniably identified. Beneficiaries would have to be sending in their adhaar number as well as their mobile numbers to access their vaccination-related communication.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the country would be gearing up for a roll out from January 16. The first beneficiaries will be 3 crore healthcare workers and sanitation workers and followed by those above 50, and those younger with co-morbidities. The plan is to have 30 crore people inoculated by July. The government has approved, under emergency use,two vaccine candidates Covishield and Covaxin. The former is based on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the other has been developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.