Digital vaccination certificates issued to Covishield, Covaxin trial participants

11,349 trial participants have been issued their certificates through Co-WIN, the Union health ministry noted in a statement.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) announced on Monday that 11,349 people, who participated in the clinical trials of Covishield and Covaxin, have been issued their digital vaccination certificates through the Co-WIN platform. These documents, the ministry said, can be downloaded through Co-WIN, Aarogya Setu, Digilocker and UMANG apps.

A health worker inoculates a beneficiary against Covid-19 at a vaccination camp organised in Mumbai. (HT PHOTO/Used only for representation)

"Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Serum Institute of India (SII) conducted phase 2/3 bridging studies of Covishield from August 2020. Also, phase 3 clinical efficacy trials for Covaxin were conducted by Bharat Biotech International Limited from November 2020. The Union health ministry received several requests from the trial participants for digital vaccination certificates through Co-WIN," the ministry said a statement.

"It was decided that the vaccination certificates may be issued to participants who were administered the vaccines during these trials, after the trials were unblinded. ICMR was designated as the nodal agency to collect vaccination data for such participants," the statement further read.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya took to Twitter to applaud the decision. "In a welcome initiative, digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates will now be issued to the clinical trial participants of Covishield and Covaxin. The nation thanks them for their incredible commitment and contribution to Covid-19 vaccine research and treatment," Mandaviya tweeted.

Covishield and Covaxin were the first vaccines that were given Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive, that commenced on January 16. Since then, four additional vaccines have been approved. Covaxin, and ZyCoV-D, that received EUA on August 20, are currently India's only two indigenously made anti-Covid shots.

Thus far, a total of 582,549,595 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country, including 795,543 in the last 24 hours, according to government data.