Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
UK yet to decide on accepting India’s vaccine certification 2nd Indian vaccine to be part of vaccination drive soon, says govt
NEW DELHI: The UK is yet to take a call on accepting India’s vaccine certification even 10 days after the end of technical discussions between the two countries that were expected to resolve the issue.
The decision on the British side will involve consultations between several ministries, including the Department of Health and Social Care and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, people familiar with the matter said. It follows the completion of technical discussions in New Delhi, they added on condition of anonymity.
The inclusion of the complete date of birth in vaccine certification done through India’s CoWIN platform has met a key requirement of the British side, they said.
The approval on the British side involves a whole-of-government approach and some time will be needed for consultations, they added. The British side is aware of the urgency of the matter and authorities are pushing for a speedy resolution, they said.
Indian officials have held two technical meetings with UK representatives; in the first one the British High Commissioner personally met the chief executive of the National Health Authority on September 2; the second meeting was held on September 21 between the technical teams of the two sides.
The two sides made each other understand how their respective systems worked, and both the sides called these meetings “quite fruitful”.
“The overall policy framework will be in consultation with the ministry of external affairs; they are the ones who are our face or who are the ones talking to them (the UK officials). As far as we are concerned, we have lent an ear to them and they are also convinced that certificate is not an issue. We have had two meetings with them and they have clearly told us that the certifi
A PERSON AWARE OF THE MATTER SEPARATELY SAID THE VACCINE WILL LIKELY BE OFFERED TO 12-18-YEAR-OLDS AS WELL
cate process is not the issue,” said RS Sharma, chief executive officer, National Health Authority.
The discussions focused on certification through the CoWIN app, the security of the system, data sharing between the two sides, and reconciling the CoWIN system with the NHS Covid Pass developed by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).
“It is beyond my mandate to probe the issue as I am in charge of the CoWIN platform and our process is by far the best in the world,” added Sharma.
Regarding CoWIN meeting the WHO requirements, Sharma, in a tweet on Thursday, reiterated, “Building a worldclass digital platform for vaccination, we have ensured CoWIN certification is compliant with the WHO-DDCC:VS data dictionary. Now, international travellers can download an international version of their certificate that reflects their date of birth from CoWIN.”
UK high commissioner Alex Ellis and Sharma also met on September 23, and the envoy described those talks as “an important step forward in our joint aim to facilitate travel”.
Ellis said at the time that neither side had raised technical concerns about each other’s certification process.
The vaccine certification row emerged in the open at a time when overall India-UK ties are on the upswing. It has become a problem as growing numbers of Indians, especially students, are travelling to the UK.
In a media briefing on September 21, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla, said that India could consider imposing “reciprocal measures” against countries that do not accept the country’s vaccine certification, a statement that people saw as a response to the stand taken by the United Kingdom, which has sparked allegations of vaccine racism.
While the UK recognised Covishield, the local variant of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine soon after, it still did not put India on the list of countries, travellers from which are eligible for the UK green pass. India continues to be in the UK’s so-called amber list of countries whose citizens have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival.
NEW DELHI: A second Indian vaccine for Covid-19, ZyCoV-D, will be included in the immunisation campaign “very shortly”, officials said at the health ministry’s briefing on Thursday, and the drive is likely to be opened up to children 12 years old and above, other people aware of the matter added separately.
ZyCoV-D has been granted an emergency use authorisation by India’s drug regulators after interim clinical trial data showed is was 66% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19. The trial included volunteers in the 12-18 age group and was among the first doses in the country to have shown to be safe and efficacious in children.
Union secretary for health and family welfare Rajesh Bhushan said the government was in talks with the vaccine manufacturer regarding pricing and procurement. “As far as the price of the vaccine at which it will be procured is concerned, we are in conversations with the manufacturer. Since it is a threedose vaccine and comes with a needleless delivery system, it would have a differential pricing than the existing vaccines that are being used in the Covid-19 vaccination drive,” said Bhushan during the media briefing.
“It will be introduced in the programme (Covid-19) very shortly,” Bhushan added.
A person aware of the matter separately said the vaccine will likely be offered to 12-18 yearolds as well.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, while announcing that India will restart vaccine exports in the quarter beginning October, said in a statement on September 20 that manufacturers were going to make nearly 300 million doses available for use in October.
Globally, at least 50 countries have begun giving doses to children. In most cases, children above the age of 12 are being inoculated. The shots being used for these ages are typically the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna doses – both have shown to be safe in children and their efficacy has been established.
In India, makers of Covaxin and the Novavax vaccine are carrying out supplementary – also known as bridging -- trials in children. In adults, India has largely been using Covishield and Covaxin.
“The production is going to go up further in the next quarter with the Zydus vaccine doses also getting added in some time. The supply lines have been streamlined...,” said a second senior government official aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.
On the issue of Covaxin’s pending recognition by the World Health Organization, ICMR director general, Balram Bhargava said: “We know that scientific data, public health considerations and international health requirements are all considered on which the clearance is given by the WHO. All these have been provided and are being looked at.”
The country has administered at least one vaccine dose to 69% of the adult population since January 16, when the drive began. At least 25% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the government data released on Thursday.