Sri Lanka has backed calls for countries to accept vaccine certifications when easing national entry regulations for the vaccinated.
The request was made in a joint statement by the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation issued in China.
The statement was signed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan at the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation.
The joint statement recognized that solidarity and cooperation are key to fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, a challenge confronting all countries in the world.
“We must champion the vision of building a global community of health for all, put people and their lives first and make concerted and coordinated efforts to address the challenge. We recognize the importance of COVID-19 vaccination as a global public good, and call upon all parties to step up efforts to make vaccines more accessible and affordable in developing countries, including making utmost efforts to provide vaccines for developing countries, LDCs in particular,” the joint statement said.
They also called upon all countries, in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, to increase national, regional and global capacities, carry out vaccine research and development as well as production in line with strict standards according to the World Health Organization (WHO) regulations, and provide safe, effective and high-quality COVID-19 vaccines.
“We support the WHO in promoting access to COVID-19 vaccines through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and its COVAX Facility, encourage capable vaccine-producing countries to provide more vaccines to COVAX, and call upon multilateral financial institutions and other international organizations to provide inclusive financial support for vaccine procurement and for strengthening production capabilities in developing countries,” the statement said.
(Colombo Gazette)