India’s COVID vax certificate gets 5 more recognitions, says MEA

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. Hindustan Times