The National Health Authority (NHA) has made vaccine certificates compliant with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) specifications, detailed in its Digital Documentation of Covid-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status.
The move comes following British authorities raised doubts more than the format of India’s vaccination certificate, resulting in vaccinated travellers from the nation becoming treated as unvaccinated.
The update incorporates primarily displaying the vaccinated person’s birth date on the certificate.
R.S. Sharma, the NHA CEO, tweeted on Thursday that India had ensured that the CoWIN certification was compliant with the WHO’s directives, as it attempts to construct a world-class digital vaccination platform.
Sharma added that folks travelling internationally could download an international version of the certificate, which would show the date of birth.
The UK amended its travel guidance earlier this month. It clarified that though the formulations of Covishield, created jointly by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured below licence in India by Serum Institute of India, certified as an “approved” vaccine, the certificates have been not.
This meant Indians travelling to the UK would continue to be treated as unvaccinated when the country’s new travel guidelines turn into effective from October 4. According to the UK’s updated travel guidelines, unvaccinated folks would have to undergo a pre-departure RT-PCR test, and tests on Day 2 and Day 8 following their arrival, apart from spending a 10-day isolation period at their location address.
Sharma had mentioned last week that there could be no concern due to the fact the solution was as great as achievable.
He added that it was QR code-based and verifiable.
India’s vaccination certificate was compliant with the WHO’s directives, except on the date of birth information, which he known as a “minor issue”. Sharma mentioned the government didn’t gather irrelevant info. He added that considering that passports currently carried the date of birth, they only collected the birth year.
Even then, Sharma had mentioned the CoWIN platform permitted travellers to enter all relevant information required for international travel.