‘Corona passport’ not recommended but ‘maybe unavoidable’: WHO

Copenhagen, March 5 : As Covid-19 transmission rates once again begin to rise across the European region, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge urged the region to return to basics when dealing with the pandemic.
As new cases of Covid-19 in Europe rose nine per cent to just above one million, it brought to an end a six-week decline in new cases and the stark realization that variants were making significant headway in the region, Kluge said during a virtual press conference here on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We are seeing a resurgence in central and Eastern Europe. New cases are also on the rise in several western European countries where rates were already high.” However, the WHO official declined to offer the support to the creation of “corona passports” many countries in the EU have been mulling over.
“WHO does not recommend passports, but I also believe that as we see already, somehow, it may be unavoidable,” said Kluge.
While acknowledging the “feasibility, and the desirability” of corona passports, Kluge told Xinhua that the “passports” came with “some caveats.”