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* India aims to have vaccinated 300 million by August
* It has so far inoculated about 3 million healthcare
workers
* Inoculation campaign suffered some early software glitches
* CoWIN platform to be integrated with contact-tracing app
By Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The digital platform anchoring
India's massive COVID-19 vaccination drive will be able to
handle up to 10 million shots daily to meet the country's target
of covering 300 million people by July-August, a government
official told Reuters.
India, which has the world's second-highest number of
coronavirus cases, is relying on CoWIN to link beneficiaries
with vaccines in what the government touts as the biggest
inoculation campaign anywhere.
The world's most populous country after China has vaccinated
around three million healthcare workers in the first two weeks
of the campaign, at a rate of just over 200,000 a day on
average, but this will have to be raised many times over if
India is to meet its summer coverage target.
Though initial glitches in the software slowed the
immunisation programme, which began on Jan. 16 with frontline
workers, the government says modifications have been made to
ensure there is no such repeat.
"Big numbers won't be a problem for us," R.S. Sharma, who
chairs a government group overseeing CoWIN, said in a Zoom
interview. "We will be able to do 10 million vaccinations per
day."
Sharma said CoWIN would be integrated into government
contact-tracing app "Aarogya Setu", or Health Bridge, which has
been downloaded by around 150 million people.
'NOT A FAD'
It is using a vaccine developed at home by Bharat Biotech
and the Indian Council of Medical Research, and another licensed
from Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
In the coming months, India is expected to approve two more
vaccines, Russia's Sputnik V and Cadila Healthcare's
ZyCov-D.
Sharma said individuals would be able to choose vaccination
slots and get QR-coded certificates once they have taken their
shots through CoWIN, allowing them to carry a proof that can be
used for, say, air or foreign travel.
"It's not a fad," he said, "It cannot be done without
technology."
India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, is also gifting or
selling shots to more than a dozen countries, and Sharma said
there had already been some international interest in using the
CoWIN platform, including from South Africa.
At home, Sharma said CoWIN would use online and offline
systems to register beneficiaries, including through telephone
help lines and walk-in centres.
"There will be millions of registrations every day and the
system should be able to handle it effortlessly," he said.
Discussions were still underway on how to inoculate such
large numbers of people, including possibly using a combination
of government and private health facilities, said Sharma, who is
also part of a national expert group on vaccine administration.
With 10.7 million confirmed COVID-19 infections, India, with
a total population of nearly 1.4 billion, trails only the United
States' tally.
It reported 18,855 new cases in the past 24 hours, the
highest in three weeks, while deaths rose by 163 to a total of
154,000.
(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das
Editing by Gareth Jones)
