“We are closely monitoring the use of technology in the fight against covid-19 and working with member states on what could be the electronic vaccination certificate,” said a specialist at the World Health Organization (WHO) branch in Europe, Siddhartha Datta, at an online press conference.
According to the same specialist, such a certificate or certification, which would allow the identification and monitoring of vaccinated persons, is not finalized and should be prepared in accordance with national legislation.
“It is not an immunity passport, supposedly to ensure that its holder is protected against the disease. We do not recommend immunity passports,” emphasized Catherine Smallwood, WHO responsible for emergency situations.
On Wednesday, the United Kingdom was the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus, which the European Medicines Agency is expected to vote by 29 December.
The WHO European zone, which includes 53 countries, including Russia, has recorded more than 19.3 million cases and more than 433,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the organization’s surveillance table. Of these, 1.5 million cases have been recorded in the past seven days.
“If we see a slight decrease in the number of cases in Western Europe, this does not mean that the WHO European region as a whole is facing an improvement in the epidemiological situation (…), the countries most affected are now the center and the southern Europe, “said the head of WHO / Europe, Hans Kluge, calling on European governments not to” let their guard down “and prevention.
In the event of a drop in contamination rates, Hans Kluge argues that states should take the time to invest in “strengthening public health infrastructure”, thereby preparing the medical and health system “for the next wave”.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,495,205 deaths resulting from more than 64.5 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 4,724 people died from 307,618 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
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