COVID-19 vaccine in India: How to apply for jab on Centre's CoWin app, registration documents required

With India preparing to begin its coronavirus vaccination drive after a vaccine receives regulatory approval, the Centre has readied its blueprint to inoculate around 30 crore people in the first phase. The Centre, in COVID-19 vaccination  guidelines , said the COVID-19 vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on the evolving pandemic situation, and finally to the remaining population based on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability. “The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and legislative Assembly election will be used to identify the population aged 50 years or more,” as per the guidelines issued.   The Centre has also said that a digital platform, COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network or Co-Win, will be used to track enlisted beneficiaries for the vaccination and anti- coronavirus vaccines on a real-time basis, the guidelines stated. Pre-registration on the Co-Win platform will be required for vaccination and there will be no provision for on-the-spot registrations at the vaccination sites. How to register According to a News18 report, citizens who are not frontline health workers will be able to register for the vaccine via the registration module on the CoWin app which can be downloaded from Google play store or the Apple app store. However, it is to be noted that the application is is yet to be launched. Twelve photo-identity documents, including Voter ID, Aadhar card, driving license, passport and pension document, will be required for self-registration on the Co-WIN website, the Centre had stated in the guidelines. Following online registration, beneficiary will receive SMS on their registered mobile number on the due date, place and time of vaccination, a FAQ document had said. How the app works According to a  Gizbot report, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has said the Co-Win app has five modules: administrator module, registration module, vaccination module, beneficiary acknowledgment module, and report module.   As per the News18 report, the administrator module is for administrators to further create sessions and the respective vaccinators and managers will be notified. The vaccination module will be for the verification of beneficiary details and to update the vaccination status. The beneficiary acknowledgment module will send SMS to beneficiaries and also generate QR-based certificates after one gets vaccinated. The report module will prepare reports on details such as how many vaccine sessions have been conducted, how many people have attended those, how many people have dropped out. The Co-WIN mobile app would also send real-time data of temperature of the cold-storage facilities to the main server, Bhushan had said. This is mainly an expansion of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) system that was launched in September. ‘Vaccination is voluntary’ The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection is voluntary, but that it is advisable to take the complete dose of the vaccine to protect oneself and limit the spread of the disease. The ministry further stated that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection with COVID-19 as this will help in developing a strong immune response. The ministry said registration of a beneficiary is mandatory for vaccination for COVID-19. Only after registration the information on the session site to visit and time will be shared. Following online registration, beneficiary will receive SMS on their registered mobile number on the due date, place and time of vaccination. On getting due dose of vaccine, the beneficiary will receive SMS on their registered mobile number. After all doses of vaccine are administered, a QR code based certificate will also be sent to the registered mobile number of the beneficiary, the ministry said. On preventive measures and precautions, the ministry said, “We request you to rest at the vaccination centre for at least half an hour after taking the COVID-19 vaccine. “Inform the nearest health authorities/ANM/ASHA in case you feel any discomfort or uneasiness subsequently. Remember to continue following key COVID appropriate behaviours like wearing of mask, maintaining hand sanitization and physical distance,” it added. Six vaccines — one developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR, second one developed by Zydus Cadila, third one by Gennova, Oxford vaccine, trial of which is conducted by Serum Institute of India, Sputnik V vaccine which is being manufactured by Dr Reddy’s Lab, Hyderabad, in collaboration with Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre and the sixth one manufactured by Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad, in collaboration with MIT, USA are undergoing clinical trials in India.     With inputs from PTI