Digital health card won’t be mandatory for Covid-19 vaccine, clarifies health ministry

Other digital documents will be used for vaccine delivery, the health ministry has asserted, refuting claims that digital health card will become a must for getting access to the vaccine.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will ensure fast vaccine delivery through its existing digital network and the new digital health ID, the health ministry has clarified that ID will not be mandatory to have access to the vaccine.

Digital card will be used for vaccine delivery, but it won’t be mandatory, assured the health ministry. (PTI)

As of now, under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), digital ID is not mandatory and will not become so in future, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

“The NDHM, as it exists today, does not make a digital ID or health ID mandatory to receive service under the digital ecosystem that NDHM is creating. To say it would become mandatory for vaccination and those who do not have health ID’s would be deprived is probably not the right interpretation,” Bhushan said.

“It would be almost like an electoral scenario where multiple IDs are prescribed beforehand so that no one is deprived of benefits of either voting on the day of election or vaccination on the designated day,” the secretary added. Addressing a meeting of top government health and research experts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently advised that the vaccine delivery system can take a leaf out of the Election Commission of India’s modus operandi in conduction elections.