Co-WIN critical to success of inoculation drive, says Centre: How app is being used in India's vaccine rollout

12-01-2021

The Centre, on Sunday, announced that Co-WIN, a newly developed online platform to monitor COVID-19 vaccine delivery, will play a critical role in the government's anti-coronavirus immunisation drive. India is expected to begin vaccinations from January 16 in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously labelled the largest vaccine rollout programme in the world. The first phase of the rollout will see roughly three crore healthcare and frontline workers prioritised.

How will Co-WIN work?
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The Co-WIN app, based on five modules, is effectively an upgraded version of the government's Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) launched in 2015 and used for India's Universal Immunisation Programme. eVIN was originally designed to closely monitor vaccine inventories at inoculation centres, reduce spoilage of vaccines as a result of poor cold storage, and maximise availability to children and pregnant women. India's IT Ministry, in collaboration with the UN Development Programme, has developed the Co-WIN app as an extension of eVIN as a cloud-based platform for inoculation within the country. According to reports, while the app's website remains the core portal, the IT Ministry is also expected to create additional resources enabling officials to report adverse events. The app is set to serve as an end-to-end solution for vaccine management and distribution and includes tracking features that allow officials to closely monitor how vaccines are transported from the manufacturer to the recipient while also acting as an information database maintaining accurate records of vaccine inventory and cold chain storage facilities (and the temperatures recorded within them). Crucially, the app will provide real-time information across the approximate 25,000 cold chain facilities in the country allowing officials to act swiftly. Unlike eVIN though, the Co-WIN app also includes a Registration module. Potential beneficiaries may download the app, input photo identification credentials and Aadhaar card details to register. Additionally, the government has also said that �it will upload bulk data on co-morbidity provided by local authorities or by surveyors.� Administrators will also be allowed to create microplanning sessions and verify vaccine administration statuses. A Beneficiary Acknowledgement module has also been integrated to produce special QR-based certificates upon a recipient's complete vaccination. After a recipient receives both doses of a vaccine, the digital certificate generated will also be stored on the government's DigiLocker app. Finally, a Report module will be used to record how many vaccine sessions have been undertaken, how many have attended each session, and how many people have dropped out of them. As per latest reports, the government has already put together a list of law enforcement personnel and other officials tasked with COVID-19 surveillance, containment and related activities. State authorities have also been directed to create a data repository of health facilities under them while linking healthcare worker data to respective facilities. Moreover, data of military and paramilitary personnel along with municipal workers engaged in containment and rollout will also be provided by the Defence Ministry, Home Ministry and Housing Ministry. This information will then be inputted into the Co-WIN app to better enable the Health Ministry to prioritise inoculation across population segments.