Travel booster: 96 countries to sign vax cert pact with India

Travel booster: 96 countries to sign vax cert pact with India

UK, EU Nations In Long List; Talks On With More

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:11.11.2021

In a big boost to international travel, 96 countries — including US, UK, many European and Middle East nations — have agreed to mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates with India, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.

The government continues to be in communication with more countries so that beneficiaries of the world’s “largest Covid vaccination programme are accepted and recognised”, thereby easing travel for education, business and tourism purposes, Mandaviya said in a statement.

The move will ease travel for those vaccinated with Indian-manufactured Covishield and Covaxin. The countries include Canada, Turkey and Australia as well. Canada has sought an application from Covaxin to approve it, even as WHO’s emergency use approval has boosted the vaccine’s international acceptability.

“At present, 96 countries have agreed to mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and also those [countries] who recognise Indian vaccination certificates of travellers fully vaccinated with Covishield/WHO approved/ nationally approved Covid vaccines,” the government statement said.

Consecutively, persons travelling from these countries are provided certain relaxations as enunciated in the health ministry’s guidelines on international arrivals issued on October 20, 2021, the ministry said. For those who wish to travel abroad, the international travel vaccination certificate can also be downloaded from the CoWIN portal.

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Many countries from Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean islands have agreed to recognize Covid-19 certificates with India.

“The ministry of health along with the ministry of external affairs is in continuous communication with all countries for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, and WHO and nationally approved vaccines to facilitate hassle-free international travel across countries,” the minister said. “The government’s commitment to accelerate the pace and expandthe scope of Covid-19 vaccination across the country has resulted in crossing the 100 crore milestone in administration of doses on October 21, 2021,” he stated.