Deputy Health Minister: vaccine passport scheme needs to be done step by step

Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong (left) at the conference (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong said at the regular Government press conference on March 31 that the Health Minister is still studying and working on scenarios for the use of “vaccine passport” in the future.

Cuong noted that the issue of vaccine passport is still under debate in many countries.

In Vietnam, the Health Minister is collaborating with other ministries and sectors to research the issue and report to the Government and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, he said, stressing the goal of ensuring safety in pandemic prevention while re-opening the economy through the resumption of flights.

According to the deputy minister, the first thing is to devise suitable quarantine procedures for entrants who have received full doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

“Related options on the matter must be considered thoroughly, so as to balance the benefits and risks. The benefits here are economic development from the reopening, but there is still the risk of the pandemic spreading in the community,” Cuong said.

For this reason, the implementation of vaccine passport is not simple, and must be done step by step, he said.

Earlier during the regular Government meeting for March, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the health, tourism and diplomacy sectors to early study and issue a mechanism for vaccine passports in order to promote trade and investment. The health sector was told to submit a plan for this matter as soon as possible.

Also at the press conference, Minister, Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said PM Phuc had instructed Government members to continue working for the twin goals and flexibly use micro policies to timely respond to unfavourable developments in the world situation, towards achieving set growth targets./.