The government of India announces a new digital platform, CO-WIN, which will act as a pivot of its COVID-19 Vaccination delivery. The government had earlier released the hierarchy of 30 crore line-listed for COVID-19 vaccination, including healthcare and frontline workers, prioritized population groups.

CO-WIN mobile app incorporates a free downloadable mobile application that can aid in recording vaccine data. With respect to 30 crore line-listed for COVID-19 vaccination, people can register themselves on the platform to receive vaccination. Reportedly, CO-WIN comes with five different modules: administrator module, registration module, vaccination module, beneficiary acknowledgement module and report module.

While the administrator module is for the administrators who will be conducting and controlling vaccination sessions across the country, registration module is for people to get registered themselves for vaccination. Vaccination module is aimed at verifying beneficiary details and updating vaccination status, while the beneficiary acknowledgement module will send SMS to beneficiaries, in addition to generating QR-based certificates for the vaccinated. Report module will prepare reports of the aforementioned line of processes.

“Every single Indian who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated. Prioritized Population Groups include about 1 crore Healthcare Workers in both Government and Private Healthcare facilities, About 2 crore Frontline Workers (including personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, civil defense organizations, disaster management volunteers and municipal workers) and also about 27 crore people in the Prioritized Age Group, which includes those aged above 50 years & those with co-morbidities,”

Speaking about the steps taken by the Union Government for rolling out COVID-19 vaccine, Shri Bhushan 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.”

“Every single Indian who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated. Prioritized Population Groups include about 1 crore Healthcare Workers in both Government and Private Healthcare facilities, About 2 crore Frontline Workers (including personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, civil defense organizations, disaster management volunteers and municipal workers) and also about 27 crore people in the Prioritized Age Group, which includes those aged above 50 years & those with co-morbidities,” he added.

India is seeing a steady and continuous decline in new COVID-19 cases since mid-September. The country’s Cases Per Million at 7,031 is still amongst the lowest in the world, while the figure of Deaths Per Million at 102 is also amongst the lowest globally.

At the same time, case positivity rate is continuously declining and cumulatively stands at 6.5 percent now. 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 percent of total active cases in the country.