Don’t share data on Covid-19 vaccine stocks, temperature of storage in public: Centre to states

June 11: The centre has written to all states and Union territories advising them not to share the data of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) system on COVID-19 vaccine stocks and storage temperature at public forums. Such data was regarded as a “sensitive information and to be used only for programme improvement”.

In a recent letter to the states, the Union health ministry said the Centre, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has rolled out the eVIN system under UIP, which is used to track the vaccine stock status and the temperature at all levels of vaccine storage, from national to the sub-district level. The letter was intended to prevent the use of such sensitive data for unauthorised commercial purposes, the ministry said. “Such data, if leaked, can be used to manipulate the market as well as associated research with respect to various vaccines and cold chain equipment,” the letter stated.

The letter written by Pradeep Haldar, Advisor, Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) to all mission directors of the National Health Mission in all the states and Union territories further stated, “In this regard, please be advised that data and analytics generated by eVIN for inventory and temperature is owned by the Ministry of Health and not to be shared with any other organisation, partner agency, media agency, online and offline public forums without the consent of the ministry. This is very sensitive information and to be used only for programme improvement.”