Glitches related to the Co-WIN software were also discussed during today’s health ministry VC
The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) took detailed feedback from the states/UTs on the Co-WIN software and their experience of its use during the recently held dry runs.
Chairing the meeting Shri Ram Sewak Sharma, Chairman of Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to combat COVID-19 and member, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 pointed out that it is extremely important to clearly identify the person who is getting vaccinated and keep a digital record on who gets vaccinated by whom, when and which vaccine. He also advised the states and UTs that the data collection should meet the purpose of facilitating work and that needs to be validated at the field levels.
He also critically highlighted the caution one needs to exercise to ensure that there are ‘no proxies’ at all; the beneficiaries need to be uniquely and undeniably identified, he strongly reiterated.
Speaking on the use of Aadhar platform, he advised the states to urge the beneficiaries to seed their current mobile number with Aadhar for registration and consequent communication through SMS; there cannot be any proxies for Aadhar authentication.
During the meeting the feedback of the States/UTs on the Co-WIN software and its operational use, emanating from the dry runs, was discussed in detail. As per a PIB statement, the deliberations included feedback from states/UTs and consequent changes in software/protocols based on those inputs. These included issues such as session allocation/planning/time slotting, work flow allocation, vaccinator’s allocation, sending SMS to vaccinators and beneficiaries, and connectivity issues.
Shri Sharma underscored the critical importance of capturing the vaccination data in real time, stating that this was non-negotiable; while the posting of data on the portal may be online or offline in view of connectivity issues being highlighted by a few states.
The VC was attended by the State Principal Secretaries, NHM Mission Directors, and State Immunisation officers and senior officers of the Health Ministry.