The Ministry of Health is awaiting the final decision of the European Union regarding immune passports and their introduction in Ukraine, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during the “Hour of Questions” to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.
“On April 13, the EU presented a draft immune passports, which, in addition to the vaccination mark, provide for a mark on the PCR testing and the amount of antibodies. This caused a heated discussion. We expect a final decision from them,” he said.
“For their part, specialists from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Transformation are working with European partners regarding the required data. We are fully prepared for any development of events, because the central component of e-Health is ready to upload data,” the minister added.
HEALTH MINISTER, HEALTH MINISTRY OF UKRAINE, IMMUNE PASSPORTS
The introduction of immune passports in Ukraine is not excluded, but it is necessary to calculate why and how it will be carried out, because not all Ukrainians will be able to be vaccinated, said Ukrainian Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov.
“Regarding immune passports, this is a very serious and very delicate discussion. There are international vaccination certificates in the world. They were used, for example, for vaccinations against yellow fever. I do not exclude that something like this could happen. We must not forget that we have a category of citizens who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. This is at least allergic reactions from any vaccine. This can have serious consequences for humans,” he said in the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel.
He also noted that an immune passport will not eliminate all problems.
“Probably, there may be some restrictions. This is a kind of fantasy, when you come to some country and you neither go through self-isolation regime, nor take a test, and if you don’t have immune passport, then you should pass a test. Here exists a discriminatory issue,” added Stepanov.
An immune passport is a document confirming that a person is not contagious with a coronavirus due to the immunity he has received. The introduction of such a document is being discussed in some countries.
