ISLAMABAD   -   Federal Minister for Planning and Head of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar said Thursday that vaccine acceptability decisions should be taken by a global institution such as WHO. He gave the statement in the wake of rejection of some brands of Covid-19 vaccine by some nations.

“Vaccine acceptability decisions have to be taken by a global institution like WHO. Each country deciding which vaccine is acceptable for travel to that country is creating chaos,” he said in a tweet on Thursday. Saudi Arabia was among the few countries that didn’t recognise vaccination certificates of Chinese vaccines despite the fact that the World Health Organisation registered at least two Chinese-manufactured vaccines — Sinopharm and Sinovac. The minister had also warned that countries not accepting vaccination certificates of Chinese vaccines would turn out to be a problem for the entire world if a decision was not taken on the issue at the global level.

“If every country makes it mandatory for visitors to be inoculated by their choice of vaccine, the entire world would suffer,” he had said.  Meanwhile, Pakistan reported 1,097 new coronavirus cases and 35 deaths. The country reported 1,097 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours, taking the country’s Covid-19 tally to 951,865.