During a presser, when asked about the delay in granting Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India is hopeful of getting approval soon.
According to Shringla, the regulatory body was concerned and had put some questions to Bharat Biotech and approval for the vaccine should come if the queries are responded to effectively.
“It is a technical and regulatory group. The emergency authorisation by the WHO is based on technical considerations and we are carefully following up the discussions at the WHO. We are hopeful that Covaxin will get approval soon,” Shringla said.
He also added, “India has proposed to its partner countries, primarily countries that Indian citizens normally travel to, that we should have a mutual (mechanism) that you recognise our vaccine certification and we will mutually recognise your vaccine certification,”.
“Now the advantage of this is that as we keep adding new vaccines to our stock of national vaccines, you do not need to go to every country to try and get recognition. You recognise the certification that we issue, you recognise its integrity and we will give you mutual treatment,” he said.
The foreign secretary said a number of countries have already agreed to the mutually acceptable COVID-19 vaccine certification framework proposal. He, however, did not name the countries. “So we have achieved some reciprocal arrangements with a number of countries. We are working with all of our partner countries to have similar arrangements. It will simplify international travel, it will normalise international travel,” Shringla said.
However, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads for the G20 summit, this mechanism could be helpful in the recovering from the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. “Business travellers, tourists which contribute to the recovery of economies will be greatly benefitted from this simplified international travel regime that we are proposing and we have taken it up with the G20, we have taken it up bilaterally, we have taken it up in plurilateral forums,” he said.
“We will continue to advocate this as a means of better and easier access to citizens travelling all over the world,” Shringla added.
On India proposing waivers by the World Trade Organisation on Covid-related medical products including vaccines, he said, “We have advocated for technology transfer and diversification of supply chain and production hubs to ensure affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 disease control tools,” he said.
“I am happy to share that G20 has recognised extensive vaccination as a global public good and I think that is where discussions in the G20 will be relevant,” he added.
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