Software being sourced to complete COVID-19 vaccine booklet digitalisation

Records of COVID-19 vaccination booklets have already been digitalised and the Health Ministry is now awaiting the appropriate software to complete this process.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared that a team of individuals has been making progress with the digitalisation – which will provide ease of access when doing business or gaining entry to places where vaccination is required.
Talks are continuing with the Indian Government pertaining to the software and when these discussions wrap up, authorities will bring the process to finality.
Dr Anthony said in a recent COVID-19 update, “Right now, we have digitalised the records, but we need to import it into a software so that you can easy reference and so forth…The Ministry has put together a team. We have about 10 persons who are working on digitalising those records and that work is continuing. We are working to ensure that we can get an appropriate software and we have been in discussions with the Indian Government, pertaining to COVID. Those discussions have not been concluded as yet, but it’s ongoing. We are hopeful that once those discussions conclude, we would be able to get the software.”
The Ministry had engaged the Government of India on an agreement that would see Guyana having access to the COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) software, which would allow the production of electronic vaccination cards.
CoWIN is a vaccination tracking software that was developed by India and is currently being used in over 70 countries around the world, including those from Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It has been reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directed officials to create an open-source version of the platform and give it free of cost to any country that wants it.
Presently, there are still instances of persons purchasing vaccination cards as opposed to taking the vaccines. This, the Health Minister reiterated, could be dangerous especially if the individual contracts the virus and doctors were misguided by their stated vaccination status.
“If we get the names of the people who would have purchased such cards, the Police obviously would be pursuing them. They would be charged for obtaining a fraudulent document or a false document. That’s something that the Police would be doing. It’s a dangerous activity that they’re engaged in, because imagine somebody in possession of a fake vaccination card, if that person gets sick and come into the hospital and they have a severe form of COVID, then doctors might falsely believe because they’ve vaccinated, they would have produced antibodies.”
The Guyana Police Force is actively working to arrest and prosecute any person guilty of this offence by acting on information provided.
The Minister said, “It is going to be a challenge with the fake cards circulating and not knowing the true status of the person. Nevertheless, if we get the names of those persons who have purchased the cards, the Police would be interested so that they can prosecute these persons.”