Co-WIN 2.0 in the works for covid vaccine self-registration

New Delhi: The government plans to soon launch Version 2.0 of the CoWin mobile app that will allow people to register themselves for a Covid-19 vaccination.

The principal secretary to the prime minister was briefed on this and other matters at a high- level meeting on Wednesday to review the progress of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the country.

The involvement of private healthcare facilities in a significant way was also discussed as part of the steps to accelerate the pace of covid vaccination.


“This will enable registration of the population in the 50 yrs+ category for covid vaccination, which is the third population priority group after the healthcare workers and frontline workers that are presently taking the vaccine,” the government said in a statement. It did not set a timeline.

Officials told The Economic Times that the Co-WIN platform is being updated to let people book appointments for vaccinations by choosing a centre and time of their convenience. Once it is opened up, people above 50 years of age will be able to register and authenticate their age.

“They can pick the place, time and also reschedule the appointment,” said an official involved in the discussions.

The platform is also being readied to enable integration with systems of private hospitals and healthcare centres, once the Centre allows them to administer vaccinations. This will ensure that citizens won’t have to access apps of private organisations to get vaccinated and obtain the vaccination certificate.

RS Sharma, chairperson of the empowered committee for administration of the Covid-19 vaccine, told ET that use of the platform is “non-negotiable” because every vaccination has to be recorded in real-time.

“The platform will provide an application programme interface (API) to the private sector who can push the info about vaccination and the certificates. But the open APIs will be available to those who are authorised by the government,” said Sharma who is also the CEO of the National Health Authority.

APIs are software tools that allow two applications to talk to each other.

Since Co-WIN has now been integrated with Aarogya Setu, it will mean that irrespective of the healthcare provider they use to get the Covid-19 jab, they will be saved from wading through the maze of various apps and interfaces.

According to senior officials, for the government this will mean that the Co-WIN platform that it set up can continue to be used to track beneficiary and vaccine information and ensure there is no duplication and therefore no leakages or misuse. It will also streamline the crucial process of issuing vaccination certificates that could come in handy for travel, seeking employment or returning to offices.

However, top officials said that whether and when the private sector will be roped in for the vaccination drive is a “policy decision” that has to be taken at the “highest level.”

“The framework is important as it will avoid multiplication. When we started testing, it was done by government laboratories and then the private sector took over. Same thing will happen here too,” said a senior official who did not wish to be identified.

The first official quoted above said it would be like the income tax filing system, which can be done on the government-run website or through private applications.

“Similar will be the case with Co-WIN—the choice will be with the citizens—the sharing of data will be both ways,” the official said.

The official said the inoculation drive has to be scaled up significantly because if 1.3 billion people are to be vaccinated, it will take 260 days—at the rate of 5 million a day—to complete administration of the first dose.

“So we have to involve the private sector and the technical architecture is being built in such a way that anyone can build an app over it,” the official said.

ET reported on Wednesday that the supply of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has exceeded usage in the first three weeks of the immunisation drive.

Only 31.45% of Covishield and 11.75% of Covaxin stocks despatched have been administered to healthcare providers, defence personnel and frontline workers between January 16 and February 9. Experts have asked the government to start allowing other priority groups to get vaccinated and involve the private sector to speed up the drive.

The meeting on Wednesday was attended by the cabinet secretary, health secretary, pharmaceutical secretary and the CEO of the National Health Authority.

The government over 9.06 million vaccine doses have been administered and India now ranks third globally, after the US (55.2 million doses) and the UK (16.12 million doses).