Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for international travel to be made easier, through "mutual recognition of vaccine certificates", amid a row with the UK over double-vaccinated Indians still having to quarantine.
"We also need to focus on addressing the pandemic's economic effects. To that end, international travel should be made easier, through mutual recognition of vaccine certificates," PM Modi said at the Global COVID-19 Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden. PM Modi is on a three-day visit to the US to participate in the first in-person summit of Quad leaders.
Even though Covishield is now an approved vaccine on the UK's revised guidelines for travel, because of "vaccination certification issues", Indians are still required to quarantine. Officials have implied the problem is not Covishield but doubts over vaccine certification in India.
PM Modi, at the Covid summit, also said India will be able to resume vaccine supplies to the world as production increases in the country, but for that, the supply chains of raw materials must be kept open. India had stopped exporting Covid vaccines in April.
"As newer Indian vaccines get developed, we are also ramping up production capacity of existing vaccines. As our production increases, we will be able to resume vaccine supplies to others too. For this, the supply chains of raw materials must be kept open," he said.
"Earlier this year, we shared our vaccine production with 95 other countries, and with UN peacekeepers. And, like a family, the world also stood with India when we were going through a second wave. For the solidarity and support extended to India, I thank you all," he added.
PM Modi also spoke about the vaccination record that India created on his 71st birthday last Friday, when India vaccinated 2.5 crore people in a single day. He said over 20 crore Indians are now fully vaccinated.
"India is now running the world's largest vaccination campaign. Recently, we vaccinated about 25 million people on a single day. Our grassroots level healthcare system has delivered over 800 million vaccine doses so far," PM Modi said.
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