China Continue to speed up mutual recognition of vaccinations
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Passengers scan health code at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport after landing in October. Photo: cnsphoto
Vaccine Passport
Vaccine passport: WHO is reluctant but there’s hope China can be a pathfinder. Nation's efforts to promote health code recognition don’t conflict with WHO stance: expert
China and its partners that are promoting regional health code
recognition can be pathfinders for a global vaccine passport program in
the future, Chinese experts said, adding that although WHO had
reservations over vaccine passports, China's efforts do not conflict
with WHO's stance.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on
Tuesday that China and South Korea will coordinate and establish a
mechanism for the mutual recognition of their health codes, in a move
that would help further normalize bilateral business and tourism
activities.
On the same day, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told
a press conference that "We as the WHO are saying at this stage we
would not like to see the vaccination passport as a requirement for
entry or exit, because we are not certain at this stage that the vaccine
prevents transmission."
Harris also mentioned other reasons
that the organization decided not to back the vaccine passport, like
possible discrimination against people who are not able to get a
vaccine.
Feng Duojia, president of the China Vaccine Industry
Association, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the WHO's current
stance doesn't imply that a vaccine passport itself is wrong.
As an international health organization, the WHO shoulders the responsibility of ensuring the safety of populations, Feng said.
Despite
the WHO's reluctance, China has steadily rolled out mutual recognition
of COVID-19 vaccinations and individuals' health codes on a small-scale,
bilateral basis.
Chinese observers widely saw China's
establishment of mutual recognition of health codes and vaccinations as a
rehearsal for trial runs of vaccine passports.
Besides South
Korea, China and Southeast Asian countries including Singapore,
Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are also eyeing mutual
recognition of health codes and upgrading "fast tracks" to promote the
resumption of people-to-people exchanges, work and production.
Malaysia
and China agreed to mutually recognize digital vaccine certificates or
COVID-19 health certificates during recent meetings between Chinese
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Malaysian Foreign
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in East China's Fujian Province.
Israeli
Ambassador Irit Ben-Abba Vitale also said in an interview with Chinese
media that Israel wants to establish mutual recognition of vaccines with
China.
Vaccination passports ultimately mean the mutual
recognition of vaccines and their effectiveness, and to reach such
mutual recognition would require lengthy negotiations. When those
problems have yet to be dealt with, it is understandable that the WHO
doesn't back the concept of vaccine passports for now, said Shen Yi, a
professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of
Fudan University.
Shen said that China's program of mutual health code or vaccination
recognition doesn't conflict with the WHO's stance on vaccine passports.
China
will continue to speed up the mutual recognition of vaccinations, which
in the beginning could be the mutual recognition of health codes, and
data sharing next, eventually reaching the target of creating
international vaccine passports, Shen said.
"It's like a roadmap. It is a step-by-step issue. When the questions above are all answered and the time is mature, China could take the lead to help the WHO by sharing its experience and providing technical support to the organization. Just as the European Commission helped coordinate COVAX, China could lend support to the WHO in this regard," Shen told the Global Times.
The WHO can draft the rules, procedures and data
format. China is willing to provide support in sharing experience and
techniques in setting up such a platform, as the country has rich
experience in this area and has realized data sharing among the health
code platforms of different Chinese provinces and regions, experts
noted.
Simon Yoke Hua-teo, the executive president of a bird's nest company
based in the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Qinzhou, Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, told the Global Times on Wednesday that many
cross-border enterprises like his support the idea of establishing
mutual vaccination recognition to facilitate business and personnel
exchanges.
"Mutual vaccination recognition will bring real
benefits for international businesses and possibly avoid weeks of
quarantine if the epidemic situation improves."
Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1220493.shtml,By Liu Caiyu;
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/L8coCmCWC8lctN7Y9IDZeQ
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