Buoyed by the success of digitization of the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) in Punjab’s two districts — Hoshiarpur and SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr), the state’s Health and Family Welfare Department is all set to roll out U-WIN — a digital platform for UIP — in all the districts of Punjab from August this year.

The pilot programme had remained a huge success with both the districts having been able to achieve the desired targets by registering 92 per cent session sites on board, while 102 per cent newborns were registered against pregnancy outcomes, and 90 per cent of the registered newborns were provided birth doses of vaccines through this digital platform.

The state Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh, congratulating the health staff for achieving this another milestone, emphasized that providing world-class healthcare facilities and best possible health-related services to the people of Punjab is the mandate of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The Minister, who joined via video conference, was addressing the two-day state-level workshop of Training of Trainers for U-WIN, that commenced on Tuesday. All the District Immunization Officers, Vaccine Cold Chain Managers from all the districts of Punjab are participating in this workshop, which will conclude on Wednesday. After getting training, these trainers will further impart training to the concerned health staff in their respective districts for a successful roll out of the U-WIN platform.

Pertinently, immunization has been a proven and cost effective strategy to prevent the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and UIP in Punjab covers 11 diseases and aims to reach over 4.37 lakh newborns and 4.80 lakh pregnant women every year.

As of now, this vaccination programme is being conducted in manual form and with execution of the U-WIN platform from August, all the data pertaining to vaccination will be digitized on the lines of Co-WIN.

The CO-WIN platform has been very successful in India for COVID vaccination in the pandemic times. With digitalization, the benefits not only include improvement in record keeping, but it also empowers the beneficiaries and with increase in vaccination coverage contributes to better public health outcomes.

Underlining the benefits of U-WIN platform, the Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Vivek Pratap Singh said that this digitalization will be of tremendous help as it will help in reducing the workload of the health staff as unnecessary time in preparation of reports will be considerably saved because online record-keeping of data will help in auto generation of required reports.

The beneficiaries will also be empowered through this portal as they will be able to register and book their vaccination, while sitting at their homes at any of their nearby session sites, he said, while clarifying that on-site registration of the beneficiaries will also be available in this portal.

Secretary Health-cum-National Health Mission’s mission director Dr Abhinav Trikha said that U-WIN platform will also enable beneficiaries to download their vaccination certificates. Reminders, in the form of text messages, will also be sent on their mobile to keep them up to date about their upcoming vaccinations, follow-up of dropouts, and planning of RI sessions, he said.

“Vaccine acknowledgment and immunization card, linked to the Ayushman Bharat Health Account ID (ABHA ID), will be generated for pregnant women and children,” he added, insisting on the popularization of ABHA ID for every citizen.