Take Chinese Covid vaccine- China’s condition to give visa to Indians, 19 other countries

Are you an Indian? Do you have to visit China for work? Well, you will have to take the Chinese vaccine for the novel Coronavirus. While this may come as surprising to many people but if anyone wishes to visit China for any purpose, inoculating themselves with China-made Covid-19 vaccine is mandatory, as per the new notice by Beijing. The mandate has been given for people coming from India and 19 other countries. A report by The IE citing notice posted at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi states that for resumption in people-to-people exchange, holding a vaccine certificate for Chinese vaccine is needed.

Now this is a problem for Indian travellers, as these vaccines are not available in India and the country has five vaccines already approved. Some media reports have cited that the countries who have to comply with the new rule to get a Chinese visa include Australia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan and South Korea. Chinese embassies in all these countries have reportedly put up notices regarding the vaccination. In one report, the US is also on the list of countries. All visa applicants inoculated with Chinese vaccination against the Coronavirus will be attended to by the embassy.

In response to having such a norm for travellers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in Beijing said that many countries have just floated ideas of linking travel to vaccination status. A report by PTI highlighted Zhao’s statement justifying this new rule. Zhao said that the country has considered the efficacy and safety of the Chinese vaccine and therefore, has given out such a proposal. He added that with this, they are not trying to link it with the recognition of Chinese vaccines but having a meaningful exploration of facilitation of international travel.

It is to note that Chinese vaccines are not the ones endorsed by WHO at the moment and the health organisation is yet to approve the Chinese vaccine. However, Zhao continued to assert that the proposal kept by China is a meaningful step which will help in facilitating international travel. The arrangement has been unilaterally made by China and is different from “vaccine recognition,” Zhao was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, WHO has so far approved Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.