96 nations agreed to accept Indian vaccine certificates, says Mandaviya

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India and 96 countries have agreed to mutually recognise Covid-19 vaccination certificates, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, according to a statement on Tuesday.

In addition to this, the United Kingdom government announced that India’s Covaxin will be added to its list of approved Covid-19 vaccines for entry of international passengers into the country without having to self-isolate on arrival. The changes will take effect at 4 am on November 22.

India’s health ministry in a statement released on Tuesday, said, “At present, 96 countries have agreed to mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and also those who recognise Indian vaccination certificates of travellers fully vaccinated with COVISHIELD/WHO approved/nationally approved vaccines. Consecutively, persons travelling from these countries are provided certain relaxations as enunciated in Union Health Ministry’s Guidelines on International Arrivals…”

“The Union Government continues to be in communication with the rest of the world so that beneficiaries of the world’s largest COVID vaccination program are accepted and recognized, thereby easing travel for education, business and tourism purposes,” the statement said.

“Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with the Ministry of External Affairs is in continuous communication with all countries for mutual recognition of vaccine certificate to facilitate hassle-free international travel across countries,” it said.

Meanwhile, the countries that approve of India’s vaccination certificate are Canada, the United States of America, Bangladesh, Mali, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Angola, Nigeria, Benin, Chad, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Estonia, Romania, Moldova, Albania, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Iceland, Eswatini, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Andorra, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Maldives, Comoros, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Peru, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Brazil, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Columbia, Trinidad & Tobago, Commonwealth of Dominica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nepal, Iran, Lebanon, State of Palestine, Syria, South Sudan, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Australia, Mongolia, and Philippines.

For those who wish to travel abroad, the international travel vaccination certificate can also be downloaded from the government’s CoWIN web portal. (Hindustan Times)