5 more nations now recognise India vaccine certificate: MEA
Nations that accepted the certificate are Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Mauritius and Mongolia
NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs (MEA) said on Monday that five more countries have recognised the Covid-19 vaccination certificate given by India.
“Mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates continues! Five more recognitions for India’s vaccination certificate, including from Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, State of Palestine, Mauritius and Mongolia,” the MEA said on Twitter.
This comes days after foreign secretary Harsh V Shringla said that a discussion was held on mutual recognition of vaccination certificate during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Italy.
“Issue of vaccination certificate was discussed especially with EU representatives. There was a conversation on mutual recognition of vaccines...a doable mechanism to facilitate easier international travel... Details will be worked out bilaterally,” Shringla had said on Friday.
“Fact of the matter is that the point PM tried to make (on vaccine certification) has been received. Most countries are quite happy with the idea of facilitating smoother international travel...and feel that we need to collectively work on it,” he stated.
Last month, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had informed that Hungary and Serbia agreed to India for mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates.
Some issue around recognising Covid vaccination certificate cropped up briefly between India and the United Kingdom. It started after the UK incorporated some changes in its travel rules from October 4 and did not initially mention made in India Covishield in the list of its accepted vaccines against Covid-19. Then the UK government accepted the Covishield vaccine as it is a formulation of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, already recognised by the UK regulatory authority, but did not accept India’s vaccine certificates, generated by Cowin.
Several rounds of talks were held between India and the UK government to resolve the issue. India took a reciprocal action and imposed similar restrictions on people coming from the UK.
The issue was finally resolved with the UK lifting curbs on travellers from India on October 11.
The Centre recently decided that the CoWin certificate will have the full date of birth of people who are fully vaccinated and want to travel abroad.
This is to comply with the WHO standards and will be in the dd-mm-yy format, a PTI report said. As of now, the certificates only mention the age of the beneficiary based on the year of birth, apart from other details like the name, place of vaccination. The report said that this new feature is likely to be available from next week.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said 78 per cent of India’s eligible population has been administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while 38 per cent have received both the shots. Describing it as an extraordinary feat, he said India is rapidly progressing on the path to defeating the virus.
According to Union health ministry data updated on Monday at 7 am, the total Covid vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 106.31 crore. “An extraordinary feat of an extraordinary nation! India has administered 1st Covid-19 vaccine dose to 78 per cent of the eligible population and 2nd dose to 38 per cent of the eligible people. Congratulations to all as we rapidly progress on our path to defeat the virus!” Mandaviya tweeted.
India’s Covid-19 case tally increased by 12,514 in a day to reach 3,42,85,814 on Monday, while 251 more fatalities during the same period pushed the death toll to 4,58,437.
The government, on Sunday, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual summit with 40 district magistrates across the country where the Covid-19 vaccination coverage has been sluggish so far. A number of chief ministers are also expected to attend the meeting.
“Immediately upon returning to the country after attending the… COP26 [in Glasgow, Scotland], Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a review meeting with districts having low vaccination coverage, on November 3 at noon via video conferencing,” a press statement issued the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Majority of the districts with low Covid-19 vaccination percentages are in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland and a few others.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently held a review meeting with state health ministers, during which he announced the “Har Ghar Dastak (door-to-door campaign)” to boost vaccination numbers.
“We are going to launch the vaccination campaign: “Har Ghar Dastak”. We decided that for the next one month, healthcare workers will go from door to door to vaccinate people eligible for the second dose, and also those who have not taken the first dose,” news agency ANI quoted the minister as saying following the meeting.
On Sunday, the health ministry said the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered under the country’s inoculation drive stood at 1.06billion as of 7am.
Also, 12,830 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 446 new deaths related to it were reported that day.