India's Covid vaccination certificate recognised by 96 countries: Govt
New Delhi: Ninety-six countries have agreed to mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificates with India, Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.
The government continues to be in communication with the rest of the world so that beneficiaries of the world's largest COVID-19 vaccination programme are accepted and recognised, thereby easing travel for education, business and tourism purposes, Mandaviya said in a statement.
"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 Covid vaccines," Mandaviya stated.
Consecutively, persons travelling from these countries are provided certain relaxations as enunciated in the Union Health ministry's guidelines on international arrivals issued on October 20, 2021.
For those who wish to travel abroad, the international travel vaccination certificate can also be downloaded from the CoWIN portal, the ministry said.
Among the 96 countries are Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Bangladesh, Mali, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Angola, Nigeria, Benin, Chad, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Estonia, Romania, Moldova, Albania, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, and Iceland.
Eswatini, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Andorra, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Maldives, Comoros, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Peru, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Brazil have also agreed to mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificates with India.
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 the Philippines are the other countries.
"The Ministry of Health along with the Ministry of External Affairs is in continuous communication with all countries for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, and WHO and nationally approved vaccines to facilitate hassle-free international travel across countries," the minister said.
"The Union government's commitment to accelerate the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country has resulted in crossing the 100 crore milestone in administration of doses on October 21, 2021," he stated.
India logged 10,126 new Coronavirus infections, the lowest in 266 days, while the active cases dipped to 1,40,638, the lowest in 263 days, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Tuesday.
With the fresh cases, the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 3,43,77,113 out of which 3,37,75,086 people have recuperated from the disease till date, it said.
The death toll climbed to 4,61,389 with 332 new fatalities that include 262 from Kerala and 15 from Maharashtra, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.34 per cent, according to the data updated at 8 am. Kerala has been reconciling Covid deaths since the past few days.
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 109.59 crore on Tuesday, the ministry said.
On Tuesday, more than 48 lakh (48,39,670) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm.
Over 15.92 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states and Union Territories, the ministry added on Tuesday.
According to it, more than 116 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far, it said.
