Aadhar-seeded mobile needed for Covid vaccine

New Delhi: A week before India begins its vaccination drive against Covid-19, officials of the Central government guided administrators from the states and Union territories on Co-WIN software management. The states have been advised, to seed the mobile numbers of all vaccine beneficiaries with Aadhaar for registration and communications through SMS and to ensure that there are no proxies in this process since the beneficiaries need to be uniquely identified.

“There cannot be any proxies for Aadhaar authentication. It is extremely important to clearly identify person who is getting vaccinated and keep a digital record on who gets vaccinated by whom, when and which vaccine,” said Ram Sewak Sharma, chairman of the Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to combat Covid-19, and a member of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of Covid-19. He also advised the states and UTs that the data collection should meet the purpose of facilitating work and that it needs to be validated at field levels.

Meanwhile, the total number of those infected with the new coronavirus strain from the United Kingdom remains 90, with no addition in the last 24 hours. A sustained decline in the number of daily fatalities too is seen as daily deaths have remained below 300 in the past 16 days. The total Covid-19 cases so far in India are over 1.04 crore, while the deaths are over 1.51 lakh. In the last 24 hours, altogether 18,645 fresh cases and 201 more deaths have been reported.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted on Sunday saying that the vaccines against Covid-19 were safe and effective and will be available in a phased manner. He added that the beneficiaries will have to register themselves for vaccination and that people should continue to maintain social distancing and wear masks, and follow all other protocols, even after their immunisation.