Centre has issued SOPs for vaccination of persons undertaking international travel for educational purposes. It has also issued guidelines for people travelling abroad for employment opportunities, or as part of India’s contingent for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
It said, CoWIN certificates will have to be linked to Passports of such Travellers and a mention of the vaccine type as ‘Covishield’ will be sufficient and no other qualifying entries will be required in the Vaccination Certificates. The Union Ministry has issued SOPs in this regard which have been conveyed to States and UTs. They have also been advised to widely publicize and take all necessary measures to immediately implement the SoPs.
The State government shall designate a competent authority in each district for permission for such administration of second dose of Covishield.
The competent authority shall check whether a period of 28 days has elapsed after the date of first dose and genuineness of the purpose of travel based on documents related to travel. This facility shall be available to those who need to undertake international travel for these specified purposes in the period up to 31st August, 2021.
It is clarified that Covishield, produced by the Serum Institute of India and approved by the DCGI is one of the vaccines by the WHO for use as on June 3.
The CoWIN system will also soon provide the facility for administration of 2nd dose in such exceptional cases.