INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organization said it was considering introducing electronic vaccination certificates, as hopes for an end to
the pandemic were boosted after Britain became the first country to approve use of a Covid-19 vaccine."We are looking very closely into the
use of technology in this Covid-19 response and one of them is how can we work with members states towards something called an e-vaccination
certificate," WHO Europe expert Siddhartha Datta told an online press briefing Thursday. Introducing such a certificate, which would make
it possible to identify and monitor people who have been vaccinated, has not been finalised and would have to be drawn up in accordance with
national laws, Datta said.It would not be an immunity passport, which is supposed to assure that its carrier is protected against the
disease because they have been infected and recovered."We do not recommend immunity passports," said Catherine Smallwood, the WHO's senior
emergency officer for Europe.Tech-savvy Estonia earlier this year began testing an app that could serve as a kind of digital "immunity
passport", allowing users with antibodies to show employers and others their reduced risk of spreading the coronavirus. Britain on
Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and the European Medicines Agency is due to announce its
decision on December 29 at the latest.The WHO's Europe zone, which covers 53 countries including Russia, has recorded more than 19.3 million
infections and more than 433,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according its data table, with 1.5 million cases recorded in the
past seven days."Whilst we are seeing a slight decrease in the number of cases in western Europe, this does not mean the entire WHO European
region faces an improvement in the epidemiological situation," said WHO Europe regional director Hans Kluge. "The resurgence is moving
eastward with the hardest-hit countries now in central and southern Europe," he said, calling on governments not to lower their guard in the
fight against the pandemic.In the event of a fall in cases, "consider scaling-up the public health infrastructure and preparing for the next
