What Is 'CoWIN' App? How To Download And Self-Register For COVID-19 Vaccination In India

'CoWIN' App is a digitalised platform to be used to effectively roll out and scale up the mechanism for COVID Vaccine Distribution System, nationally. Check how to self-register for COVID-19 vaccination In India

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With Drug Control General of India (DCGI) granting approval to both Oxford COVID-19 vaccine 'Covishield' and indigenously developed 'Covaxin' of Bharat Biotech, India now awaits the mega announcement over vaccination drive as the manufacturers of both the vaccines are all set to supply the doses required for phase one vaccination. In a move to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to the general public, the Centre has announced to launch a new mobile app called, 'CoWIN App' which allows public to self-register for the Coronavirus vaccine. What is CoWIN? Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in December 2020 announced to launch “CoWIN”, a Grand Challenge for strengthening the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system. It is an upgraded version of the eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network), a digitalised platform to be used to effectively roll out and scale up the mechanism for COVID Vaccine Distribution System, nationally. As explained by the government, the specially designed CoWIN app comes with five modules, namely - Administrator module, Registration module, Vaccination module, Beneficiary Acknowledgement module, and Report module. As of now, the application is in the pre-product stage which can not be accessed by people, there is no self-registration going on. Once launched, it will be available to download for free via the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. How to register on CoWIN App? Step 1: In order to register on CoWIN, the user would need to download the CoWIN app from Google play store or the Apple app store. Step 2: After downloading the application, you would upload your photo identity documents for self-registration process. Step 3: Upload government photo identity or do an AADHAAR authentication. The authentication can happen via biometrics, OTP or demographic. Step 4: Once registered, date and time will be allocated for vaccination. You will get a reminder SMS to reach on the allotted date and time for vaccination Step 5: In case you are not prepared to take the vaccine shot on the day you get an appointment, you can reschedule your visit to the vaccine booths. In the first two phases of the vaccination drive, only frontline workers will be vaccinated. Next, people above 50 years of age, who are at a greater risk of contracting Covid-19, will be vaccinated. People below that age group but with co-morbidity issues will be considered in the third phase. As part of the massive vaccination drive, special training will be provided to all the workers involved in the process. Initially, all national and state training of trainers may be successfully conducted on virtual platforms. After that, training will be imparted at district and sub-district levels using a mix of virtual and face-to-face pieces of training. The Covid-19 vaccine will be introduced once all training is completed in the district/block/planning unit.