The Union Health Ministry today clarified that the CoWIN app available on Play Store was not meant to register for or book Covid-19 vaccinations. That can be done only through the portal. The app is meant for use only by the administrators, it said.
Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) is the platform developed by the government which will be used later to manage the inoculation drive.
The Centre's clarification came on a day India's massive Covid-19 vaccination drive entered its second phase, focusing on people aged over 60 or those above 45 with illnesses.
Around 27 crore people are expected to be covered in this phase - of which around 10 crore are those above 60, according to the government.
Here is all you need to know about the expanded drive, which was flagged of with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself getting jabbed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi.
In the first phase, which began on January 16, the Centre targeted the vaccination of around three crore healthcare staff and frontline workers.
India has so far approved two vaccines for emergency use - Covishield (developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and manufactured by the Serum Institute) and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.
A third - Russia's Sputnik V - has also applied for emergency use and this will be considered by a SEC (subject expert committee) today. Sputnik V has an efficacy rate of 91.6 per cent, which is higher than Covishield's 70 per cent. Covaxin's efficacy has not yet been confirmed.
