On Monday, India presented its tech platform for COVID-19 vaccinations in a virtual global meet. At the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that CoWIN, the country's vaccination portal, was made open-source to be scaled globally for use by other nations.

The event was attended by representatives from 142 countries that took interest in the platform.

WHAT IT DOES

Covid Vaccine Intelligent Network or CoWIN is an open-source, multilingual website launched in January as the backbone of India's vaccination drive against COVID-19. Users can book their slot, keep track of the country's immunisation drive and download their vaccination certificates through the platform. Health providers can also use the site to manage vaccine stocks and track workflows.

WHY IT MATTERS

As the purported "crown jewel" of the Digital India Initiative, the CoWIN platform is being extended as a "digital public good" to the world. Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union minister of Health and Family Welfare, said the platform can be scaled as per requirements. In April, the Indian government made CoWIN's API available to third parties for integration with other platforms.

During the event, the Health Minister also described CoWiIN as a "robust, inclusive and scalable system that can prevent rent-seeking, black marketing and other malpractices." He claimed that the platform helped ensure the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and last-mile delivery, as well as enable continuous tracking of adverse events following immunisation.

Dr Ram Sewak Sharma, CEO of the National Health Authority, said the platform has over 365 million registered users from a network of more than 130,000 COVID-19 vaccination centres.

THE LARGER TREND

Last month, India's Supreme Court criticised the government's policy of mandating citizens to register for COVID-19 vaccination solely through the CoWIN platform given the digital divide in the country.

In response, the Health Ministry said the use of the online platform did not deter people from getting vaccinated as on-site facilitators help them get registered. It said nearly six in 10 registered to the programme on-site, while almost 80% of all vaccine doses have been administered through walk-in vaccination.

Like India, Singapore and Hong Kong have also developed their own vaccination platforms. Bahrain was reportedly the first country to develop its own mobile app to support its COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, other countries and healthcare providers have sought the aid of technology providers for their immunisation efforts. Recently, one of Australia's largest hospitals leveraged HotDoc's scheduling solution in a bid to book approximately 1,000 COVID-19 vaccination appointments a day. Okinawa City in Japan has tapped SAP Japan to support its vaccination efforts. Tech giants Google and Microsoft have also developed vaccination management platforms for public health agencies.

ON THE RECORD

"India has been committed to sharing all our experiences, expertise and resources with the global community in this battle. Despite all our constraints, we have tried to share as much as possible with the world and we remain eager to learn from global practices. Technology is integral to our fight against COVID-19. Luckily, software is one area in which there are no resource constraints," Prime Minister Modi said.

"CoWIN platform is the first of its kind software in the world developed by leading IT experts in India to implement the world’s largest immunisation campaign against COVID-19. It has enabled a transparent system to monitor each dose of vaccine supplied to vaccination facilities and recording the fulfilment of demand at a grassroots level. CoWIN being a dynamic platform can accommodate any modifications," NHA CEO Sharma also said.