The World Health Organization said itwas considering introducing electronic vaccination certificates, as hopes foran end to the pandemic were boosted after Britain became the first country to approve use of a Covid-19 vaccine, reports AFP.
“We are looking very closely into the use of technology in this Covid-19response and one of them is how can we work with members states towardssomething called an e-vaccination certificate,” WHO Europe expert SiddharthaDatta told an online press briefing Thursday.
Introducing such a certificate, which would make it possible to identifyand monitor people who have been vaccinated, has not been finalised and wouldhave to be drawn up in accordance with national laws, Datta said.
It would not be an immunity passport, which is supposed to assure that itscarrier is protected against the disease because they have been infected andrecovered.
“We do not recommend immunity passports,” said Catherine Smallwood, theWHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe.
Tech-savvy Estonia earlier this year began testing an app that could serveas a kind of digital “immunity passport”, allowing users with antibodies toshow employers and others their reduced risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Britain on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and the European Medicines Agency is due toannounce its decision on December 29 at the latest.
The WHO’s Europe zone, which covers 53 countries including Russia, hasrecorded more than 19.3 million infections and more than 433,000 deaths sincethe start of the pandemic, according its data table, with 1.5 million casesrecorded in the past seven days.
“Whilst we are seeing a slight decrease in the number of cases in westernEurope, this does not mean the entire WHO European region faces animprovement in the epidemiological situation,” said WHO Europe regionaldirector Hans Kluge.
“The resurgence is moving eastward with the hardest-hit countries now incentral and southern Europe,” he said, calling on governments not to lowertheir guard in the fight against the pandemic.
In the event of a fall in cases, “consider scaling-up the public healthinfrastructure and preparing for the next surge,” he said.
