The CoWIN system is introducing a new feature of four-digit security code from May 8 to minimise data entry errors about vaccination status that would subsequently reduce inconvenience caused to citizens, the health ministry said.
It has been noticed in some instances that citizens who had booked their appointment for COVID-19 vaccination through the CoWIN portal but did not actually go for vaccination on the scheduled date have received SMS notification that a vaccine dose has been administered to them, it said.
Upon examination, it has been found to occur largely on account of the vaccinator wrongly marking the citizen as vaccinated, an instance of data entry error by the vaccinator, it stated.
"In order to minimize such errors and the subsequent inconvenience caused to the citizens, the CoWIN system is introducing a new feature of four-digit security code in the CoWIN application from May 8.
"Now, after verification, if the beneficiary is been found eligible, before administering the vaccine dose, the verifier/vaccinator will ask the beneficiary about his four-digit code and then enter the same in the CoWIN system to correctly record the vaccination status," the ministry said in its statement.
This new feature will be applicable only for citizens who have done an online booking for a vaccination slot.
The four-digit security code will be printed in the appointment acknowledgement slip and will not be known to the vaccinator. The code will also be present in the confirmation SMS sent to beneficiary after successful booking of an appointment.
The appointment acknowledgement slip can also be saved and shown from the mobile.
This will ensure that for those citizens who have booked an online appointment, the data entries regarding vaccination status of a citizen are recorded correctly, the ministry said in a statement.
This will also reduce the opportunities of impersonation and wrongful use of flexibilities provided in CoWIN for facilitating vaccination coverage.
The ministry advised the citizens must carry a digital or physical copy of their appointment slip and the registered mobile phone with appointment confirmation SMS, so that the security code can be furnished for easy completion of vaccination recording process.
Citizens must provide the security code to the vaccinator as the digital certificate will be generated only after the vaccination record has been updated with the security code. Citizen should get a confirmation SMS after the process has been successfully completed.
The confirmation SMS indicates that the vaccination process has been completed successfully and the digital certificate has been generated. If one does not get the confirmation SMS, one should get in touch with the vaccinator or the vaccination centre in-charge, the ministry said.