Covid vaccine: You may soon be able to book your vaccine slot on apps orher than Aarogya Setu, CoWin website – Times of India

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released new guidelines for integration of CoWIN with third party applications. The government will start providing CoWin platform APIs to private developers that will enable them to create apps and services similar to what is available on Aarogya Setu.
Third party applications were only allowed to show vaccine status and whether there are any open slots or not. But with the new guidelines, third-party apps will be allowed to register people for vaccines and also download vaccine certificates. Not just that, people will be able to report any adverse events after vaccination as well. With this development, citizens will no longer have to just rely on Aarogya Setu or the CoWin website to book vaccines and generate certificates.

As all private apps are required to use CoWin APIs, the data will be collected centrally and processed by the same CoWin servers used by Aarogya Setu and the CoWin website. So, it ideally doesn’t matter which third party app you choose to register for the vaccine.
“As per the guidelines by the government, third-party applications can be either offered directly to citizens (B2C) or offered to private vaccination centres (B2B) for following functionalities:
A. discover vaccination centers and related information
B. schedule appointments
C. manage vaccination workflow (in the case when such application is offered to CVCs)
D. generate/download certificates
E. report any adverse events after vaccination as per AEFI guidelines.”
The government has also mandated a verification mechanism. “Third-party apps will need to
have a mechanism to verify the identity of the person vaccinated in accordance with the laws,” it said.
Documents valid for registering people for vaccines on third apps are Aadhaar, Driving License, PAN card, Passport, Pension Passbook, NPR Smart Card and Voter ID.
“In the cases where Aadhaar is used, CVCs have to ensure that the guidelines prescribed under the Aadhaar Act are followed,” it added.