Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told his counterparts that only 3 percent of India’s population is fully vaccinated and if this proposal is implemented, it could be "hugely discriminatory".
India has been invited to the G7 meeting as a guest this year. The G7 constitutes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US.
According to an NDTV report, the health minister said, “Considering the fact of lower levels of vaccination in developing countries in contrast to the developed countries and still unaddressed issues related to equitable and affordable access, supply and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, India would propose that implementation of vaccine passports will be hugely discriminatory and disadvantageous to the developing countries.”
"India would suggest that the same should be implemented duly taking into consideration emerging evidence on
In a joint declaration, the health ministers from the seven nations have vowed to step coordination against future pandemics and other threats. However, despite growing concerns over poor and less developed countries not getting any or enough vaccines, the members didn’t commit to vaccine deliveries or ramping up their production.
Poor and developing nations don’t have enough vaccine coverage. While G7 countries are already committed to supporting the Covax global vaccine sharing programme, the World Health Organization and others have warned it is short of around 200 million doses in the short term.
Meanwhile, the ministers have agreed to co-operate and share results from vaccine and therapeutic trials to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and also any future health issues.
