Nirendra Dev
New Delhi: The CoWin digital platform, which has been made available at the global stage since Monday, July 5, is also being offered to WHO’s COVID Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).
According to official sources, representatives and Ministers from 140 countries attended the Conclave.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural speech.
Close to 400 delegates from these countries, besides representatives from European Commission and UN Offices in India, took part at the Conclave.
Sources said, Ministers from five countries–Bangladesh (Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister, ICT Division, Ministry of Posts and IT); Bhutan (Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo, Minister of Health); Maldives (Mr. Ahmed Naseem, Health Minister); Afghanistan (Dr. Wahid Majrooh, Minister for Public Health); and Guyana (Dr. Frank C. Anthony, Minister of Health) spoke at the Conclave.
The CoWin Global Conclave was organized to share the success story of the digital platform, which forms the technological 'backbone' of India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.
"India has offered the platform, which can be adapted and scaled up for health interventions across the world, to partner countries as a global public good," a source said.
The Ministry of External Affairs worked actively to facilitate record international participation at the Conclave.
Other senior international participants spoke during the technical sessions.
In their interventions, the Ministers thanked India for organizing the Conclave and found the discussions very informative. They said that this initiative could be useful for addressing health-related challenges in their own countries and expressed interest in collaborating with India to use the CoWin platform.
Prime Minister Modi stated in his speech that the Covid vaccination platform Co-Win is being readied to be released open-source and will be available to all countries, in keeping with India's ideal considering the entire world as one family.
The Conclave was merely the first step in introducing this platform to a global audience, according to the Prime Minister.
Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also addressed the conclave.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla welcomed the participants to the Conclave.
The Conclave had an in-depth technical session.
Several countries showed interest in the adoption of CoWin platform.
Sources said the Ministry of External Affairs will work with the National Health Authority for enabling the adaptation and adoption of the platform by these interested countries.
Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cyprus, Croatia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Maldives, Malawi, and Guyana have already shown interest among many. Through CoWin, India has administered 350 million doses of Covid vaccines, including nine million in a single day a few days ago.
