PM Modi bats for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates amid UK row

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 22

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday batted for international travel to be made easier through mutual recognition of Covid vaccine certificates by countries.

The remarks made at the Global Covid 19 Summit at the start of PM’s US visit come at a time when the UK travel rules continue to cite problems with India’s Covid vaccine certifications while granting approval to indigenously made Covishield.

“We need to focus on addressing the pandemic’s economic effects. To that end, international travel should be made easier, through mutual recognition of vaccine certificates,” said the PM at the Summit, where he promised resumption of vaccine exports and called for supply chains of vaccine raw materials to be kept open.

Terming Covid an unprecedented disruption which was not yet over, the PM said India had always seen humanity as one family.

“Much of the world is still to be vaccinated. India has always seen humanity as one family. India’s pharmaceutical sector has produced cost effective diagnostics, drugs, medical devices and PPE kits. These are providing affordable options to many developed countries and we have shared medicines and supplies with over 150 countries,” said PM Modi.

Noting that earlier this year India shared vaccine production with 95 other countries and UN Peace Keepers, the PM thanked the world for standing by the country through the second wave and said, “India is running the world’s largest vaccination campaign. Recently India vaccinated 25 million on a single day and in all over 800 million doses have been delivered so far. Over 200 million have been fully vaccinated.”

Hailing CoWIN, India’s digital Covid vaccine delivery and certification platform, the PM said India had made digital solutions available to the world for free.

“As our production increases we will be able to resume vaccine supplies to others too. For this, supply chains of raw materials must be kept open. With our Quad partners we are leveraging our vaccine making strength for the Indo Pacific,” the PM said.

He recalled India and South Africa’s proposal for a TRIPS waiver at the WTO for Covid vaccines, diagnostics and medicines.

“This will enable rapid scaling of the fight against the pandemic,” the PM said.