With CoWin you can see vaccine status of others

New Delhi: The Health Ministry has launched a new Application Programming Interface (API), through its web portal Co-WIN, called ‘Know Your Customer’s/Client’s Vaccination Status’ (KYC-VS). KYC-VS will enable a verifying entity to know whether a person has been vaccinated against Coronavirus or not, the Union Health Ministry said.

In a release, the Ministry said yesterday that to use this API, an individual needs to enter his/her mobile number and name. “Thereafter, they will get an OTP which they have to enter. In return, Co-WIN will send a response to the verifying entity on the individual’s status of vaccination,” said the release.

This response will be digitally signed and can be shared instantly with the verifying entity. “A real-life example could be when at the time of booking a railway ticket, an individual will input the necessary details for buying the ticket and if required, the concerned entity will also get the vaccination status in the same transaction, with the due consent of the individual,” noted the release.

The Ministry said that as socio-economic activities are being gradually revived while maintaining everyone’s safety, there is a need for a way to digitally convey the status of individuals’ vaccination to entities with whom they may be engaging with for any or all reasons, such as employees, passengers, residents etc.

“Therefore, there is a need to enable an Aadhaar like authentication service for the status of vaccination through Co-WIN. To take care of these cases and others that may come up this API has been launched,” the release said.

KYC-VS according to the Ministry is both consent-based and privacy preserving.

Additionally, in order to facilitate quick integration and faster adoption, the Co-WIN Team has prepared a webpage with the API, which may be embedded in any system. This will allow for a seamless integration with any system.

It added that this service may be utilised by any service provider, private or public, for whom verifying an individual’s vaccination status is critical for facilitating a service requested.