What is Digital Health ID that will be used by government for Covid-19 immunisation?

In his Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the creation of a digital health ID for every Indian under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).

Even as the world races to find a cure for coronavirus disease (Covid-19), vaccinating 1.3 billion people will be India’s biggest challenge in the fight against the pandemic. The urgency of the same was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Nodi in the inaugural function of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020 on Monday. He said, “…India is now at the forefront of vaccine development for Covid- 19. Some of them are in advanced stages. We are not stopping here; India is already working on putting a well-established vaccine delivery system in place. This digitised network, along with the digital health ID, will be used to ensure immunisation of our citizens.”

In his Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the creation of a digital health ID for every Indian under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). The NDHM is aiming to create a digital ecosystem for healthcare and integrate it with telemedicine and e-pharmacies at a later stage.

The digital health ID is a 14-digit number that can be generated on the website, healthid.ndhm.gov.in. The pilots have been rolled out in six Union Territories — Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Ladakh and Puducherry and the facility is currently available there. The scheme will be available in the entire country when it is implemented. There will be two options for generating the Digital Health ID- one by using Aadhaar and the other by using the phone number.

Once the 14-digit number has been generated, the system will also give an option to generate an alias. This will be similar to an email ID — xyz@ndhm.in with a password. This will help in easy accessibility for everyone. The digital ID can also be physically generated in a health facility after the complete rollout using Aadhaar. By using the digital health ID all the health records will be stored in the cloud with the ownership lying with the individual. The Digital Health ID will be in the form of a mobile application of website.

National Health Authority (NHA), which administers the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) will lead the implementation of NDHM.