Govt. has no plan to introduce vaccine passport | Fusion - WeRIndia

Many countries made vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for international travellers. Some countries have rolled out a vaccine passport also for fully vaccinated people.

Thus, a vaccine passport is used for global travel and helps track visa applications fast. However, as of now, India has no plan to introduce a vaccine passport for global travel.

Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan has written about it in reply to a question asked in Lok Sabha.

He said that the government had no plan to introduce a vaccine passport. Though there had been multilateral discussions on various related matters, no arrangements had been made for it as of now.

He added that the country had been in discussions with other countries to recognize Indian manufactured vaccines against COVID-19 on a reciprocal basis. As India recognizes the vaccines of other countries, it asks those countries to recognize the vaccines manufactured here. In other words, India is engaging with other countries for mutual recognition of vaccination certificates.

India issues CoWIN vaccine certificates to fully vaccinated people. It hopes these certificates will be recognized by other countries on a reciprocal basis for global travel.

Earlier, India asked EU member states to accept Covishield and Covaxin vaccines. At that time, the country conveyed that it would follow a reciprocal policy. If they accept Indian manufactured vaccines, India will also accept their vaccines, or else global travellers to India have to face quarantine here. This is because many countries are not accepting Covishield and Covaxin. Hence, fully vaccinated Indians are facing troubles with quarantine rules in other countries.

EU launched its EU Digital Covid Certificate (EUCC) or Green passport. This certificate is issued to vaccinated people who received any of the four approved vaccines by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). As Covishield and Covaxin are not on the list, India asked to accept these vaccines on a reciprocal policy.

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