Vaccines for travel: WHO IHR committee meets Wednesday to take a call

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 12

The World Health Organization said on Monday that it did not recommend vaccinations as a basis for permission to travel across the world adding that its International Health Regulations Committee will meet on Wednesday to take a policy call on this matter.

The WHO said in ten days it will issue guidelines on standards the countries can use to draft digital certificates for travel across nations.

“The WHO does not recommend vaccines for travel. Vaccination should not be a precondition for travel or entry. We have so little access to vaccines in so many parts of the world. We are however in the process of coming out with guidelines on digital certificates which can be interoperable between nations,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said at a time when India has been working with the EU nations for approval to India-made Covishield for transit across the EU. So far 15 EU members have approved Covishield for inclusion in the digital vaccine passport the EU issued on July 1.

The WHO however said it encourages countries to adopt quarantine procedures based on RTPCR test reports and also adopt its guidelines on digital certificates, which will be interoperable.

The WHO leaders added today that its IHR committee will address the issue of vaccine passports on Wednesday.

Earlier today, WHO DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Delta variant was “ripping across the world at a shorching pace”.

The WHO DG said that after ten weeks of decline, the world was again witnessing a rise in Covid infections.

He said increased transmission was being seen in five of the six regions of the WHO.

“Delta variant ripping across the world at a scorching pace. We are getting reports of hospitals reaching capacity. Delta is spreading quickly infecting unprotected people. In countries with low vaccine coverage, Delta is driving catastrophic waves leading to hospitalization,” the WHO DG warned.

He said Delta was now in over 104 countries and the WHO expected it to soon become the dominant strain in the world.

The WHO also advised four countries that have announced booster doses for their people to reconsider their policy considering even health workers in certain parts of the world have not received their two doses.

“There is no evidence yet that boosters will help six months after the primary dose,” Swaminathan said after the WHO DG noted that this was no time for a lull.