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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will stop the coronavirus vaccination this weekend to upgrade the software used to coordinate its campaign, the health ministry said on Friday, preparing to expand the program after the outbreak of infections in some states.
With the world’s highest number of infections after the United States, India began its vaccination campaign on Jan.16, covering nearly 11.5 million healthcare and frontline workers, against a target of 300 million in August.
“The nationwide immunization exercise is expanding exponentially,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that a new version of its Co-Win digital platform was being rolled out. this week-end.
Co-Win, integrated into a government mobile phone application, is widely used to schedule vaccination appointments, allow health authorities to monitor supplies, and upload proof of vaccination.
Initial software glitches had slowed the rollout of vaccines in India, forcing many states to go offline.
Last month, a government official told Reuters that the software changes would eliminate any glaring weaknesses when the campaign expands from Monday to cover people aged 60 and over 45 with health problems. health.
Authorities estimate that it could process up to 10 million vaccines per day, compared to the current average of 300,000.
Co-Win is part of a government contact tracing application “Aarogya Setu”, or Health Bridge, downloaded by nearly 170 million people.
Infections in India rose by 16,577 in the past 24 hours to 11.06 million, according to data from the Ministry of Health, while the death toll rose by 120 to 156,825.
A recent outbreak in the western state of Maharashtra and the southern state of Kerala is responsible for the bulk of infections and deaths.
(Interactive graph tracking the global spread of the coronavirus: here)
Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra and Krishna N. Das
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