A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said digital health IDs will be used to systematically carry out the vaccination process, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday made it clear that the health ID will not be mandatory for a person to receive a Covid vaccine.
“The health IDs, being set up under the National Digital Health Mission, is still in nascent stages. Pilots were rolled out in some Union Territories on August 15,” he said at a press conference here.
“National Digital Health Mission, as it exists today, does not make digital health ID mandatory to receive service under the digital ecosystem. To say it would become mandatory for vaccination is not the right interpretation. (But) health ID would be utilised,” Bhushan said.
“In cases where the beneficiary does not have one, there are multiple IDs which can be utilised, almost like a electoral scenario where multiple IDs are prescribed beforehand so that nobody is deprived of their voting right on the day of elections or on the day of vaccinations,” he added.
