Co-WIN app for COVID-19 vaccination: Should you register yourself? Here’s what govt says

India is all set to commence the "world's largest vaccination drive", starting from tomorrow. Nearly 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers will be inoculated during the initial phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive. To monitor the inoculation drive and track the listed beneficiaries for vaccination on a real-time basis, the central government has developed Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network or Co-WIN application.

COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network has been developed for planning, implementation, monitoring, & evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in India, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said. Co-WIN will facilitate real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature during the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Thursday. "There are five modules in Co-WIN app - administrator module, registration module, vaccination module, beneficiary acknowledgment module and report module,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said earlier.

Users can register themselves on the app for vaccination. However, the Co-WIN app is not available on either Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. It will be used as a back-end software during COVID-19 vaccination drive, starting from Saturday.

"The self-registration module of Co-WIN App has not been released yet. Be wary of any fraudulent apps with similar names that may exist on different platforms," Vardhan said.

The ministry of health and family welfare has warned citizens against downloading fake CoWIN apps that are doing the rounds on app stores. The government’s Co-WIN app is still under development.

"There are several apps that are named Co-WIN on mobile app stores and also several websites claiming to have an APK for the Co-WIN app. However, none of these apps are official apps for COVID-19 immunization," the ministry of health noted in a tweet. Co-WIN app for self-registration will be available soon and will be duly announced by the government, the health ministry said.

India has set up a 24x7 call centre – 1075 — for all inoculation related queries. "A dedicated 24x7 call centre – 1075 – has also been established for addressing the queries related to COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software," Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The drug regulator granted the emergency use approval for two indigenous vaccines — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech.