At CoWIN conclave, PM Modi urges countries to work together to combat COVID-19 pandemic
Jul 05, 2021
By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], July 5 : India will offer the CoWIN platform as a digital public platform to other countries to run their own COVID-19 vaccination drives to fight the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday at the CoWIN Global Conclave.
While addressing the conclave, PM Modi said the biggest lesson from the pandemic is that for humanity and the human cause, we have to work together and move ahead together. "We have to learn from each other and guide each other about our best practices."
During the conclave, the Prime Minister expressed India's eagerness to learn from global practices. Emphasizing the importance of technology in the fight against pandemic, PM Modi said that software is one area in which there are no resource constraints.
That's why India made its Covid tracking and tracing App open source as soon as it was technically feasible, PM Modi added. He pointed out that with nearly 200 million users, the 'Aarogya Setu' app is a readily available package for developers. Having been used in India, the Prime Minister told the global audience, you can be sure that it has been tested in the real world for speed and scale.
On adopting a digital approach for vaccination, the Prime Minister also said that, "India decided to adopt a completely digital approach while planning its vaccination strategy. This helps people in proving that they have been vaccinated, expediting the normalcy in the post-pandemic globalized world. A safe, secure and trustworthy proof helps people to establish when, where and by whom they have been vaccinated. Digital approach also helps in tracking the usage of vaccination and minimizes the wastage."
The Prime Minister also informed that through CoWin, India has administered 350 million doses of Covid vaccines, including 9 million people in one day, few days ago. Furthermore, vaccinated people do not need to carry around fragile pieces of paper to prove anything. It is all available in digital format. The Prime Minister also highlighted the customizability to the software as per the local requirements of the interested countries.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also addressed the Global CoWIN Conclave, which saw the participation of 400 representatives from 140 countries.
"We are excited to offer the Co-WIN platform as a technology tool that can be used for the greater public good globally. I hope all the countries are able to gain value and benefit from our offering," said Union Health Minister.
