World Health Organization presses EU on 'equal recognition' of COVID-19 vaccines

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The World Health Organization on Thursday cautioned against plans to restrict travel and events to people who have received certain COVID-19 vaccines amid reports the European Union plans to exclude jabs donated to African countries from its travel certificate.

"Any measure that only allows people protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines to benefit from the re-opening of travel into and with that region would effectively create a two-tier system, further widening the global vaccine divide and exacerbating the inequities we have already seen in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. It would negatively impact the growth of economies that are already suffering the most," stakeholders in the United Nations COVAX program said in a statement.

Earlier this week the African Union and African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine donated to many African nations through the COVAX program would not be recognized under the planned EU Digital Covid Certificate scheme.

The so-called green pass allows people who have received two doses of approved vaccines to travel freely within the EU, but the Indian-manufactured AstraZeneca jab is not valid.

The EU has approved only the AstraZeneca vaccine from manufactuerers recognized by the European Medicines Agency, while the world's largest vaccine-maker, India's Serum Institute, is excluded. The African Union has warned that African travelers could be discriminated against if the Indian version, called Covidshield, is not included in the EU travel certificate.

The EMA has said the Indian manufacturer needs to seek EU approval.

"Such moves are already undermining confidence in life-saving vaccines that have already been shown to be safe and effective, affecting uptake of vaccines and potentially putting billions of people at risk. At a time when the world is trying to resume trade, commerce and travel, this is counter-effective, both in spirit and outcome," the COVAX statement said.

The United Nations maintains that the AstraZeneca vaccine, including Covidshield, has "tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths across the world."

Iraq has received more than 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX initative, which aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to low- and middle-income countries with limited production capacities.