Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said international travel should be “made easier” through “mutual recognition of vaccine certificates”. Without mentioning any countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the need for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates. The statement comes amid a controversy over the UK’s revised travel guidelines for fully vaccinated Indians.
“We also need to focus on addressing the pandemic economic effects. To that end, international travel should be made easier, through mutual recognition of vaccine certificates,” Modi said at the Global COVID-19 Summit hosted by US President Biden in Washington DC. He also talked about the Co-WIN app and said over 200 million Indians are now fully vaccinated. Modi’s statement comes after India Tuesday raised the issue with the UK over the latter not recognising Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine as well as the India’s vaccination certification process. India and the UK are presently holding technical-level talks between the makers of Co-WIN app and Britain’s NHS app administered by the UK’s state-run National Health Service (NHS). Modi said, India’s pharmaceutical industry has produced cost-effective diagnostic kits, drugs, medical devices and PPE kits and these are providing affordable options to many developing countries.
The Prime Minister added that Indian vaccine makers are ramping up production capacity and that the country will be able to resume the export of Covid-19 vaccines to other countries once production is increased. In his remarks at the Global COVID-19 Summit, Mr Modi said, earlier this year, India shared the vaccine production with 95 other countries and with UN peacekeepers and like a family, the world also stood with India when it was going through a second wave. He thanked all for the solidarity and support.
