The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said many apps, with the name ‘CoWIN’ have come up on app stores, ANI reported. These apps were created by “unscrupulous elements” to sound similar to the government’s upcoming application on COVID-19 vaccination.

Also read: Ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccine within 10 days of emergency use approval: Govt

The Centre has directed not to download or share personal information on these apps.

The government’s official platform will be adequately publicised upon its launch, the Health Ministry said.

Short for Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network, the CoWIN app is being developed to aid the mass inoculation drive that India is set to undertake in the coming days.

Its features will include Aadhaar authentication and SMS confirming vaccination in 12 languages. 

Also read: India holds back COVID-19 vaccinations over delays in purchase agreement: Report

India has approved the use of vaccines Covishield and Covaxin. 

Covishield has been developed by British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford. Covaxin is indigenous vaccine, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.