Covid certificates to mention date of birth of fully vaccinated people travelling abroad

Amid the India-UK tussle over the vaccination status of Indians, it has been decided that the CoWin certificate will have the full date of birth of people who are fully vaccinated and want to travel abroad. This is to comply with the WHO standards and will be in the dd-mm-yy format, a PTI report said. As of now, the certificates only mention the age of the beneficiary based on the year of birth, apart from other details like the name, place of vaccination. The report said that this new feature is likely to be available from next week.

"It has been decided that a new feature will be added to the CoWin under which those who are fully vaccinated and want to travel abroad will have the full date of birth on their vaccination certificates," an official source said to media.

The UK government has recently revised its travel guideline in which it has recognised Serum Institute of India's Covishield but UK government officials expressed doubt over India's certification process. The move drew strong criticism from India, which pushed for the recognition of its vaccine and vaccine certificate through diplomatic channels. India also clarified that if the UK refuses to consider Indian



travellers vaccinated with Covishield as fully inoculated, then the same will be done to UK travellers in India. British High Commissioners Alex Ellis met National Health Authority chairman RS Sharma and the outcome of the meeting was that Covishield, which is a formulation of Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, manufactured in India and also exported to the UK is not the problem.

"We're clear Covishield is not a problem. The UK is open to travel and we're already seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK, be it tourists, business people or students," British High Commissioner Alex Ellis had said in a statement on Wednesday.

What was the controversy over UK's treatment of Covishield?

Though the UK government recognised Covishield, it did not accept the vaccine certification in India. In such a case, a fully vaccinated Indian will also have to be quarantined in the UK, like a non-vaccinated traveller. India termed this treatment as discriminatory. While both sides discussed the issue, RS Sharma reiterated that there was no problem with the certificate that India gives. "This is a completely baseless controversy raised by some people," RS Sharma said.