2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva
next to their headquarters, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by
the novel coronavirus.Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The World Health Organization said it was considering
introducing electronic vaccination certificates, as hopes for an
end to the pandemic were boosted after Britain became the first
country to approve the use of a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We are looking very closely into the use of technology in this
Covid-19 response and one of them is how can we work with member
states towards something called an e-vaccination certificate,” WHO
Europe expert Siddhartha Datta told an online press briefing
Thursday.
Introducing such a certificate, which would make it possible to
identify and monitor people who have been vaccinated, has not been
finalised and would have to be drawn up in accord ance with
national laws, Datta said.
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It would not be an immunity passport, which is supposed to
assure that its carrier is protected against the disease because
they have been infected and recovered.
“We do not recommend immunity passports,” said Catherine
Smallwood, the WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe.
Tech-savvy Estonia earlier this year began testing an app that
could serve as a kind of digital “immunity passport”, allowing
users with antibodies to show 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 to announce its decision on December 29 at the latest.
The WHO’s Europe zone, which covers 53 countries including
Russia, has recorded more than 19.3 million infections and more
than 433,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to
its data table, with 1.5 million cases recorded in the past seven
days.
“Whilst we are seeing a slight decrease in the number of cases
in western Europe, this does not mean the entire WHO European
region faces an improvement in the epidemiological situation,” said
WHO Europe regional director Hans Kluge.
“The resurgence is moving eastward with the hardest-hit
countries now in central and southern Europe,” he said, calling on
governments not to lower their guard in the fight against the
pandemic.
In the event of a fall in cases, “consider scaling-up the public
health infrastructure and preparing for the next surge,” he
said.
-AFP
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