CoWIN certificates of vaccination now to be linked with passports for travel abroad: New SOP

June 7: The Union Government has now come up with a new SOP for vaccination of people undertaking international travel for education, employment and India’s contingent for Tokyo Olympics. The latest guidelines specified that the CoWIN certificates of such category of persons will be linked to their passports. The union health ministry further specified that full vaccination (with 2 doses of Covishield) of such persons can be done with minimum 28 days gap between the two doses. In the passport, there should be mention of vaccine type as ‘Covishield.’ Apart from this, no other qualifying entries required in vaccination certificates.

In this connection, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) has written to the states and Union Territories to facilitate vaccination of people who have taken Covishield’s first dose and will travel abroad for education, employment or as part of India’s contingent for Tokyo Olympics, but whose planned travel dates fall before completion of 84 days.

However, the new SOP remained silent about those who have taken Covaxin or who will be taking Sputnik V.