CoWin — India’s COVID-19 Vaccination App to Go Global Today, Around 50 Countries Likely to Adopt Tech; Have a Detailed Look at its Features

KEY STORY

•  India is all set to share its very own CoWIN platform with the world on Monday during the CoWIN Global Conclave. As the nation offers the CoWIN platform as a digital public good to other countries to run their own COVID-19 inoculation drives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sharing his thoughts about the digital platform during the conclave at 3 pm (IST). Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan will inaugurate the virtual conclave. Others expected to speak at the event include Foreign Secretary H V Shringla, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Sharma.

• Till now around 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in adopting CoWIN. Sources said other countries such as Vietnam, Iraq, Dominican Republic, the United Arab Emirates have also expressed interest in knowing about the Co-WIN platform for implementing it in their own countries to run their own Covid programmes.

• Recently, Dr R S Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), had said that there is a massive demand for the CoWIN platform in various countries and India is ready to share the open-source software for free. The prime minister has directed officials to create an open-source version of the platform and give it to any country that wants it for free, Sharma had said.

• The virtual CoWIN Global Conclave is a joint initiative by the Union ministries of health, external affairs and the NHA. It will see the participation from health and technology experts representing countries from across the globe. The conclave aims to share India’s experience with regards to universal vaccination to fight COVID-19 through Co-WIN, the NHA said in a statement posted on its website.

• India developed Co-WIN as the central information technology (IT) system for strategising, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Covid vaccination. Recently, many countries have shown interest in using the platform, the NHA said.

• “India is excited to join hands with the world to win over COVID-19 together with Co-WIN. “Join us as we unfold the story behind the development of a scalable, inclusive and open platform called CoWIN, the tech backbone of India’s vaccination drive,” it said.

What is CoWIN and What is it Used for?

Short for the ‘COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network’ application, the CoWIN app is used to manage and scale up the massive vaccination drive. The CoWIN app is said to be a repurposed version of eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network), an indigenously developed platform in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The application has been built to be a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in India. The CoWIN application not only helps the government coordinate the massive inoculation process, but it also helps as an aid of health authorities to monitor coronavirus vaccines in real-time.

CoWIN helps in the registration and booking of vaccination slots

CoWIN, which has a mobile application as well as a desktop version of the website, allows beneficiaries to book their vaccination slots by registering with their mobile number. However, at present, prior registration on Cowin.gov.in is no longer necessary, but a beneficiary must mandatorily register themselves on the site before getting their vaccine to keep track of updates regarding their vaccination process.

CoWIN provides you with your Vaccination Certificate

This is yet another important feature of this application at a time when vaccination certificate is being made mandatory by several states and countries across the globe. So, through CoWIN, a person can download their vaccination certificate from their registered account as soon as they get the vaccine shot. As per reports, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has stated that the Co-Win certificate will likely be recognised as genuine proof of immunisation by other countries.

CoWIN allows you to make your Vaccine Certificate error-free

To make the process of providing an error-free vaccination certificate to all, a special feature called ‘Raise an Issue’ has been added to the CoWin platform. Through the CoWIN portal, all vaccinated people who have spotted an error in their vaccination certificate can make corrections to name, year of birth, and gender on their COVID-19 vaccination certificates if there are inadvertent errors.

CoWIN lets you link your Passport with your Vaccine certificate

Another important feature of CoWIN is that it helps users to link their passport to their Covid-19 immunisation certificate, and this is very necessary for those travelling or planning to travel overseas.

 CoWIN helps you merge your vaccine certificates

All beneficiaries who had received their two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by enrolling from two different phone numbers and received two different certificates can now merge the two certificates through the CoWIN portal.