The government has made seeding current mobile number with Aadhaar mandatory for receiving Covid-19 vaccination and will not allow proxies for Aadhaar authentication, said RS Sharma, Chairman of the Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management on Covid-19, on Sunday.

Sharma, also a member of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of Covid-19, said it is being made a must for identifying the person getting vaccinated and also keeping a digital record on who gets vaccinated by whom, when, and with which vaccine.

He was briefing senior officials from State and Union Territories at a video conference convened by the Health Ministry. Apart from State Principal secretaries, National Health Mission directors and State immunisation officers attended the meeting that discussed in detail the States’ feedback on the Co-WIN software, which forms the backbone of the last-mile vaccine administration, and its operational use.

Robust software

Sharma gave an overall view of the Co-WIN software and the principles underpinning the technology back-up for the vaccination exercise. He said robust, dependable and agile technology shall form both the foundation and the back-up for the country’s Covid-19 vaccination, which shall be the world’s largest immunisation exercise. This is an unprecedented scale of immunisation, he pointed out.

Addressing the participants, Sharma said that the process should be citizen-centric, and built on the approach that the vaccine shall be available anytime and anywhere. He stressed on the need to be flexible without compromising on quality. He reiterated that inclusivity, speed and scalability have been kept in mind while designing the unique digital platform with all components being portable, synchronous without excessive and unnecessary dependencies.

Former Telecom Regulatory Authority Chairman underscored the critical importance of capturing the vaccination data in real time and said there is a need for identifying the beneficiaries uniquely and undeniably.

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