'Extra steps taken to protect India's COVID-19 vaccination drive from cyber attacks'

RS Sharma, chairperson of the empowered group of Covid vaccination said that the government is taking all required steps to keep India's vaccination process safe from cyber attacks.

New Delhi: Admitting that there is every possibility of a cyber attack on India's Covid-19 vaccination process, RS Sharma, chairperson of the empowered group of Covid vaccination said on Tuesday that the government is taking all required steps to keep the system safe from cyber attack.

"Like Co-WIN 1.0 there were glitches in Co-WIN 2.0 too. We have been monitoring the scalability of the system. At the same time we are ensuring that applications should be safe from cyber attacks, as there is every possibility of such incidents," said Sharma in New Delhi.

The statement given by Sharma assumes significance following reports that a Chinese state-backed hacking group in recent weeks targeted the IT systems of Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech to get a competitive advantage over Indian pharmaceutical companies.

Sharma, however, said that the glitches were rectified.

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"Ever since the Co-WIN 2.0 portal started operating yesterday morning, more than 50 lakh registration for vaccination have been completed," Sharma said.

He said that around 26,000 to 27,000 hospitals (both public and private) are doing the Phase II vaccination process for people above 60 years of age and for the age group between 45 to 59 years, who have been suffering from co-morbidities.

"All the hospitals are empanelled with AB-PMJAY and CGHS. However, States like Delhi, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana are involving private hospitals empanelled with their own health schemes," said Sharma while addressing a press conference over actions taken, preparedness and updates on Covid-19.

Interestingly, these four states have implemented their own system of health initiatives.

Talking about the recent surge in Covid19 cases in some states, Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog said that public gathering, wedding season and parties are the major reason for such spike in cases.

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"The state government themselves have admitted the fact that a large number of public gathering, wedding season and parties have been attributing in spike in Covid cases. The message was communicated by the state government to our central teams who have visited the states registering spike in Covid cases," said Dr Paul.

States like Maharastra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh have been witnessing a recent surge in Covid cases.

However, with more than 40,000 cases, Maharastra and Kerala contribute 75 per cent of the Covid cases.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan said that India recorded 97 per cent of the total recovery in Covid cases. "At present, active cases constitute 1.52 per cent, deaths 1.41 per cent and recovery figure constitute 97.08 per cent," said Bhushan.

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Referring to the coverage of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, Bhushan said that a total of 1,48,55,073 doses have been administered to date.

He said that 2,08,791 doses have been administered to people above 60 years and people aged 45-60 years with co-morbidities.

"67,04,856 health care workers got the first dose and 25,98,192 got the second dose," he said and added the vaccination is being done voluntarily.

"Both doses of vaccination is necessary to fight against Covid19. However, we keep perusing to people to get their second dose at the earliest," Bhushan said.

Referring to an incident where a state minister from Karnataka has asked the health care workers to the residence for vaccination, Bhushan said that the health ministry has asked for a report from the state government.

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"There is no such provision that a beneficiary can ask the health care workers to visit his or her house to provide vaccination," said Bhushan.

Bhushan said that 5 crore doses of vaccine have been dispatched across the country to date.

"From 29,000 cold chain points across India, we are distributing vaccines doses to the nearest vaccination centres especially hospitals," Bhushan said.

Answering another question, Dr Bhargava Bhargava, director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has clarified that people on blood thinners can also be vaccinated "as both the Indian vaccines are safe for all."

There were concerns that Covid-19 vaccination may be harmful to people with blood thinners.

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