In the latest move to make travelling easier for the citizens, the Government of India will soon link Covid-19 RT-PCR tests to the Co-WIN application to make the RT-PCR certificate digitally accessible.
Currently, the Co-WIN application has the vaccination certificate linked to it. As several states in India and foreign countries also are seeking an RT-PCR test certificate, this move will help the people travelling to those places.
“What we are doing is we are working with the Director-General of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), and we have already developed a system like you can, you know, download the Co-WIN certificate. Similarly, now you will download the RT-PCR certificate digitally signed and actually we are through with that journey," National Health Authority chief RS Sharma told NDTV.
Many countries are yet to approve Co-WIN as a vaccine passport to grant entry.
In his conversation with NDTV, Sharma mentioned that initially, attempts were made to make a multilateral agreement under which every country’s digital vaccination certificate will be accepted as a digital passport. However, that has not happened yet.
“There is an attempt now on a bilateral basis — I accept your country’s passport and you accept mine. So those discussions are going on with our Ministry of External Affairs in both countries," he said.
"The QR code is encrypted, the information which is required on a passport is actually there on the digital certificate vaccine certificate. So we have created a packet of all the information and this packet is given to the Ministry of External Affairs," he said. Sharma also said that the Civil Aviation ministry has collaborated in this.
India’s vaccination certificate has aligned with the international standards from the beginning.