As the country rushes to get its citizens vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) at the earliest, doubts over the reach of the vaccine in rural areas and other interiors have cropped up. There are fears that the digital divide existing in the country may become a hurdle in the way of mass inoculation in spite of there being an awareness about vaccination at the ground level.
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However, National Health Authority (NHA) CEO R S Sharma on Wednesday said nobody would be left out of the inoculation process due to the digital divide, news agency ANI reported. "There does exist a digital divide in the country but I do not think that anybody who wants to get vaccinated will be left out because of the digital barrier," he said.
"Since the beginning, we have allowed walk-ins, which means one does not have to register. We have also opened the call centre at the National Health Authority as well as assisted registration through common service centres," he said, adding that digital systems do not discriminate between people based on their knowledge of the system.
"People in villages are doing digital transactions and these systems are not more complicated. Neither language nor not having a mobile phone should be a barrier," Sharma added. To provide better services to its users, CoWin has integrated over 12 languages in its system, ANI reported. It has issued 25.69 crore vaccination certificates till date.
Meanwhile, out of the total 26,19,72,014 people in the country who have got their vaccination, around 80% were inoculated through walk-ins, ANI reported.
(with ANI inputs)