India / What issues did govt say it faced on Day 1 of vaccination drive?

New Delhi: Since it was the first day of vaccination drive across India on Saturday, a few issues came up with Co-WIN digital platform including delay in uploading beneficiary list at some session sites and a few healthcare workers who got vaccinated were not scheduled for today's session. However, resolutions were provided for both the issues, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Speaking about the issues with Co-WIN digital platform on day one of COVID vaccine drive and resolutions provided for the same, Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry in a press briefing said, "Delay in uploading of the beneficiary list at some session sites was reported and its resolution was also provided--System, performance and speed improved and being further optimized."

"Another issue faced was, Healthcare workers (HCW) were vaccinated though they were not scheduled for today's session. As a resolution, the process was evolved and states have been advised to upload details of such HCW in Co-WIN database," he added.

The Union Health Ministry further stated that the top five states where the beneficiaries were administered COVID-19 vaccine jab today include: Andhra Pradesh with total 332 Covishield sessions, Bihar: 301 ((Both type of sessions held i.e. Covishield and Covaxin), Karnataka:242 (both sessions), West Bengal: 183 (Covishield session) and Maharastra: 285 (both sessions).

"The Serum Institute of India (SII) produced COVISHIELD was supplied to all States and Union Territories (UT). Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN was supplied to 12 States. Total 3,351 sessions were held across the country with both the vaccines, said Health Ministry on COVID19 vaccine roll-out," the Health Ministry said.

A total of 1,91,181 beneficiaries got vaccinated for COVID-19 on day one of the massive nationwide vaccination drive, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Co-WIN is an online digital platform developed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It is being used to drive the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the country. It is facilitating real-time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature, and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for the COVID-19 vaccine.

This digital platform is assisting programme managers across National, State, and District levels while conducting vaccination sessions. It is also helping them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held, and vaccine utilization.

The platform enables national and state administrators to view and sort data of beneficiaries as per their gender, age & co-morbidity. They can also view the metadata of vaccinations and Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) reported from constituent districts across States & UTs. District administrators can additionally create session sites at any location by entering the pin-code, followed by specifying the locality or villages and subsequently assigning a vaccinator.

Billed as the world's largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.