CoWin to add date of birth for fully vaccinated travelling abroad | India News – Times of India

PUNE: People fully inoculated against Covid-19 and wanting to travel abroad will have a vaccination certificate with their full date of birth on the CoWIN app. As of now, the certificate refers only to age based on the year of birth. The new feature may go live by next week.
A senior central government official with the CoWIN management portal said the introduction of the new feature stems from ongoing technical discussions between India and the UK on CoWIN certification. A senior official with the portal told TOI, “We believe that the UK wants the date of birth format in the CoWIN certificate as per WHO standards — in the dd-mm-yy format — for international travellers. Hence, the same feature will be introduced in the CoWIN certificates for those going abroad.”
The UK government’s relaxed travel rules come into force from October 4. “You must be able to prove that you have been fully vaccinated (plus 14 days) with a document (digital or paper-based) from a national or state-level public health body that includes, as a minimum, forename and surname(s), date of birth, vaccine brand and manufacturer, date of vaccination for every dose, country or territory of vaccination and/or certificate issuer. If your document from a public health body does not include all of these, you must follow the non-vaccinated rules. If not, you may be denied boarding,” the website added.
CoWIN vaccination certificate currently displays the beneficiary’s name, age based on the year of birth, gender, ID, unique health ID, vaccine name, date of first dose, date of second dose, vaccinator, vaccination centre’s name, and city/state.
A senior official from the ministry of health and family welfare told TOI, “No changes are required in the current CoWIN certificates as the format is in sync with WHO standards. The new feature can be opted for by those who want to travel abroad.”
National Health Authority (NHA) chief executive officer Ram Sewak Sharma said there was no concern at any point expressed by the UK government about India’s certification process. Sharma, who is also the head of the CoWIN platform, said, “As per the WHO Covid vaccination certificate template, there is a ‘date of birth’ column, which is optional. At CoWIN, we collect only the year of birth of the beneficiary, as per which his/her age reflects on the vaccination certificate. Hence, the new feature will be introduced only for those travelling internationally. Such users can download their updated certificate after putting in their month and day of birth as per their passport. The downloaded certificate will then contain the full date of birth of the beneficiary.”