Five countries recognize Vietnam’s vaccine passports

Vietnam’s vaccination proof has so far been recognized in five countries namely Australia, Belarus, Japan, the UK, and the US.

Vaccine certificates are now recognized in dozens of countries.

The recognition has been based on certain criteria on types of Covid-19 vaccines, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press conference on December 9.

Dozens of countries like those in ASEAN, the European Union, China, and South Korea are considering the recognition while India and Canada have made approval on principle, pending Vietnam’s unified vaccine passport template and electronic verification mechanism, Hang said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has recognized vaccination certificates from 78 countries from ASEAN, Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, Germany, India, Poland, Qatar, South Korea, Russia, the UK, the US, among others.

Countries on the list are those with high Covid-19 safety and a high vaccination rate. The vaccine passports are both issued online and printed with a verification code.

Regarding vaccine passports, Vietnam has accepted the vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, according to the spokesperson.

Vaccine passports are seen as a potential way to permit a faster economic recovery from large-scale lockdowns imposed by countries worldwide. As a result, dozens of nations have backed the use of vaccine passports, deeming them crucial to global economic recovery.

Vietnam has been proactive in recognizing vaccine passports as part of efforts to restore economic development since the country has switched anti-pandemic strategy from “zero-Covid” to “adapting safely to Covid-19” in October 2021.