The Union government has written to the states and Union Territories, advising them not to share the data of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) system on vaccine stocks and the temperature of vaccine storage at public forums, and stating that it is a "sensitive information and to be used only for programme improvement". In a recent letter to the states, the Union Health Ministry said that the government, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has rolled out the eVIN system under UIP, which is used to track the vaccine stock status and the temperature at all levels of vaccine storage, from national to the sub-district level.
In the letter, the Health Ministry said it was overwhelming to see that all the states are using the system to update the stock and transactions of COVID-19 vaccines on a daily basis. "In this regard, please be advised that data and analytics generated by eVIN for inventory and temperature is owned by the Ministry of Health and not to be shared with any other organisation, partner agency, media agency, online and offline public forums without the consent of the ministry."
"This is very sensitive information and to be used only for programme improvement," said the letter written by Pradeep Haldar, Advisor, Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) to all mission directors of the National Health Mission in all the states and Union territories.
Meanwhile, the government said that the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country had crossed 24 crore. The ministry said that in the 18-44 age group, 3.38 crore people have received the first dose across states and union territories and 4.05 lakh people have got the second dose. Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have administered the first dose to more than 10 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group each, the ministry said.
The country has cumulatively administered 24.24 crore vaccine doses, according to a provisional report at 7 pm on Wednesday. The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, the ministry underlined.