State Covid apps will get to 'log into' Co-WIN | Economic Times

The Centre is finalising plans to allow state governments to integrate their vaccination portals or applications with the country’s nodal Covid-19 vaccination platform – Co-WIN, according to a senior government official who said the policy is likely to be released " in a day or two.” Several states including Karnataka, Punjab and Chhattisgarh who have either launched or are in the process of building their own interfaces are looking to prioritise varying groups for vaccine eligibility, as the country races to inoculate citizens against the raging virus.“We are finalising the open API policy... (different) states want certain criteria to include (in their own) priority groups. After the policy is finalised, they can build their own applications,” RS Sharma, chairperson of the empowered committee for administration of Covid-19 vaccine, told ET. API stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. By integrating state-level apps with the Co-WIN platform, the Centre will continue to get real-time data on the vaccination status countrywide, while also enabling citizens to receive individual digital vaccination certificates. “The integration process is simple, there will be no confusion,” added Sharma.States’ PlansFollowing the liberalisation of the country’s vaccination drive at the start of May, many states have declared different groups as frontline workers, granting them priority in the vaccine queue. This includes walk-ins at inoculation centres and in some cases providing exclusive access to vaccinations for such groups ahead of the general public.Karnataka, which said it would launch its own vaccine app, plans to identify close family members of health workers, state transport personnel, auto and cab drivers, street vendors, security staff, judicial and media persons as priority groups. These priority groups and other front-line workers will be given the jabs first, once vaccination restarts in the state for the 18-44 age group on Saturday. "We want to improve the user interface of Co-WIN, so that we can bring in many additional features such as geographical limitations, details about when a person who comes in for vaccination last tested positive for Covid," deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan, who is also the head of the state Covid-19 Task Force, told ET.The new app and the website will be linked to Co-WIN and it is likely to be launched on June 1, he said, once it receives the Centre’s nod. Priority groups will be inoculated in the government-run vaccination centres that are currently vaccinating those above 45 years, and can either pre-register or directly walk-in, the minister said.In Punjab, the state government opened vaccination for those below 45 years on May 10, but with riders. Only priority groups, which includes people with comorbidities, families of healthcare workers, labourers and jail inmates, are being vaccinated at present.The state has launched its own app COVA Punjab to carry out vaccination through walk-ins for these groups, as CoWin did not allow such segregation earlier, Vikas Garg, state nodal officer for Covid Vaccination, Punjab told ET.