CoWIN portal down since early August

CoWIN Portal Down Since Early August 2025

Context:

• CoWIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network): India’s official digital platform for COVID-19 vaccination registration, scheduling, tracking, and certification.
• Significance during pandemic: Certificates served as proof for travel, commercial entry, and job requirements.
• Vaccination milestone: Over 2 billion COVID-19 doses recorded on the portal by Union and State governments.
• Current issue: Portal has been down since early August 2025, affecting access to vaccination certificates.

Portal Features:

• Five modules:
  1. Orchestration module
  2. Vaccination cold chain module
  3. Citizen registration module
  4. Vaccinator module
  5. Certificate, feedback, and adverse event reporting module
• Supports multiple vaccines: Covishield, Covaxin, Corbevax, Sputnik-V, among others.
• Digital public good: Offered globally in 2021 to aid pandemic response.

Impact of Outage:

• Citizens unable to download vaccination certificates, affecting travel and visa processing.
• Third-party certificate retrieval via DigiLocker also disrupted.
• Officials claim resolution expected shortly.

Current Vaccination Demand:

• Minimal demand for COVID-19 vaccination in India as of 2025.
• WHO report (21 July–17 August 2025):
  • 71,687 new cases in 87 countries, a decrease from previous 28-day period.
  • 35 countries showed >10% increase in new cases.

Significance / Implications:

• Highlights the importance of robust digital infrastructure for public health management.
• Shows the legacy of CoWIN as a model for large-scale immunisation tracking.
• Digital disruptions can affect international travel and administrative processes.
• Potential lessons for future epidemic preparedness and public health IT systems.

Updated - September 08, 2025 12:03 pm | The Hindu