Providing details in the Lok Sabha about about the COVID-19 vaccine portal, which has been created along with the CoWin mobile app to smoothen the vaccination drive across the country, minister of state for health Ashwini Choubey said it has been developed by the Ministry of Health, government of India with the support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India Office. As on February 1, Rs 58.90 lakh has been incurred on Co-WIN.
Choubey also informed that privacy impact assessments have also been carried out with regards to the application. “Yes, privacy impact assessments were carried out for Co-WIN portal. For data safety, data is encrypted using a highly secure key, no unauthorised access to database on AWS server is allowed and restricted access to relational database service (to decrease the risk of malicious activities),” he informed, stating that the Co-WIN application follows the privacy policy as stated in the National Digital Health Mission.
The Co-WIN application comes with five different modules. Aimed at ensuring ensuring smooth tracking and registration for COVID-19 vaccine, the application modules include Administrator module, Registration module, Vaccination module, Beneficiary Acknowledgement module and Report module.
The CoWin mobile app is also an upgraded version of eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) and will be available for free download via Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app is also likely to launch on Jio phones that run on KaiOS.
Willing citizens who are not frontline health workers will be able to register for vaccination through the ‘Registration Module’ on the app. The app, at the moment, is being used as a back-end software during COVID-19 vaccination drive.