New Delhi: Feedback from states has prompted the Narendra Modi government to plug the gaps in its cloud-based application CoWIN and add features like beneficiary allocation.
CoWIN is an IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in the country. India kickstarted the drive on 16 January to inoculate an estimated 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase.
After concluding the drive on the first day, the states had asked the Centre to add a feature that would allow additional beneficiaries, who are not scheduled to be inoculated on a given day, to get the shot.
Now, in a new letter sent to the states and Union territories Tuesday, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the government has tweaked the app and added the “features of session scheduling, beneficiary allocation and allocation of additional beneficiaries at the session site”.
The move came after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the states Monday that “the workflow of the vaccinator module (in the app) is further being refined”.
In the latest letter, Bhushan said, “The feature of ‘Allot Beneficiary’ in an ongoing session has been added in the vaccinator module and is live.” He added, “The feature has been added to facilitate maximum utilization of staff deployed at the session sites so that they can cater to optimal number of beneficiaries per session.”
Bhushan clarified that “such additional beneficiaries whose name exist in the database, can be added to the session”. Names of the beneficiary are searchable through their mobile number.
The letter, accessed by ThePrint, is marked to additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and health secretaries across states and UTs.
Also read: Coronavirus likelier in air we breathe than surfaces touched — what scientists say we got wrong
‘Don’t deny vaccine’
Noting that the additions would allow for better coverage, Bhushan, however, said it “may be ensured that those scheduled to be vaccinated in a session” are not “denied on account of others having been vaccinated”.
The letter suggested that the site in-charges can do a “careful assessment during the day of numbers of scheduled beneficiaries likely to turn up during the day (say around 3-00 PM), and number of additional unscheduled beneficiaries that may be allotted to the session may then be decided carefully”.
He also reiterated his Monday letter to say that “any beneficiary given vaccination must be covered after due verification, preferably through Aadhaar, through the vaccinator module in Co-Win software”.
The letter also restated that the responsibility of tracking each and every beneficiary for complete immunisation lies with the respective state governments. The states were also asked to ensure delivery of provisional certificate for first dose vaccination and the final certificate after second dose to the beneficiaries.
‘Ask officers to hold daily review meetings’
To ensure coordination among various stakeholders, the Centre also asked states to issue instructions to the district collectors, deputy commissioners and district immunisation officers to “mandatorily hold daily review meetings with the session site in-charges and the vaccine cold chain point charges”.
According to the letter, the objective of review meetings should be to take feedback about the overall day’s progress — “session planning and scheduling for the forthcoming day or week”, apart from reconciliation of vaccine stocks and ensuring 100 per cent availability of progress on CoWIN.
The meetings must also take stock of training and sensitisation of the stakeholders about latest instructions or changes in the software. “It requested that all the concerned officials at all levels are duly sensitised about these instructions and strict compliance to these instructions may be ensured,” it said.
Also read: Fewer than 50% healthcare workers get the Covaxin shot at 6 central hospitals in Delhi