The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has today released new guidelines for the integration of the Indian vaccination portal CoWIN with third-party applications. This will let developers include the CoWIN API in their own apps, providing an in-app portal to get registered for the vaccine. This will be similar to what is currently available to users of the Aarogya Setu app. So far, third-party applications were only allowed to show vaccine status and whether there are open slots available in a selected region. The new guidelines will allow more integration and hence, bring more convenience to people. The Ministry also tweeted out guidelines for the integration of CoWIN with third-party applications. Check out the Ministry’s tweet below. #Unite2FightCorona #LargestVaccineDrive@MoHFW_INDIA releases Guideline for integration of CoWIN with third party application. CoWIN platform is an important tool for management of registration, appointment, managing vaccination and certification. — Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) May 26, 2021 As per the guidelines, these third-party applications can be offered directly to customers (B2C) or to private vaccination centres (B2B) for the following functionalities- Discover vaccination centres and related information. Schedule appointments. Manage vaccination workflow. Generate/Download certificates. Report any adverse effects post-vaccination as per AEFI guidelines. All third-party apps will use existing CoWIN server The new third-party apps that will integrate the CoWIN API will still be using the existing server used by the CoWIN portal and the Aarogya Setu app. Hence, which app you choose to register yourself for the vaccine will not really make a difference. To register yourself on the third-party apps for vaccination, users will require an Aadhaar card, Driving License, PAN Card, Passport, Pension Passbook, NPR Smart Card or Voter ID.
