NEW DELHI: India has opposed the Covid vaccine passport at the G7 meeting of health ministers calling the initiative hugely discriminatory.
“At this stage of the pandemic, it’s pertinent to also discuss India’s concern over the idea of a vaccine passport. Considering the lower levels of vaccination in developing countries in contrast to the developed countries and still unaddressed issues related to equitable and affordable access, supply and distribution of effective vaccines, India would propose that implementation of vaccine passports will be hugely discriminatory and disadvantageous to developing countries,” health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
The minister suggested the initiative be implemented after taking into account evidence on efficacy of vaccines ‘under the overarching coordination of WHO duly attending to the anomaly of access and affordability as it exists today’.