The government of Japan has included Bharat Biotech's Covaxin in the list of recognised vaccines to further facilitate travel from India, said the Indian embassy on Thursday.
“Government of Japan includes the indigenously developed and manufactured Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin by Bharat Biotech of India, as one of the recognised vaccines for 1st and 2nd dose with effect from 10 April 2022 to further facilitate travel from India to Japan (sic)," the embassy took to Twitter to say.
Apart from Covaxin, Japan also recognises Pfizer's Comirnaty, AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria, Covid-19 vaccine by Moderna and Janssen Covid-19 vaccine.
Valid vaccination certificates in Japan
Covid-19 vaccination certificates issued outside of Japan are recognised in the country if they are either in Japanese or English and contain the name, date of birth, product name or manufacturer of vaccines, vaccination date, and the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses.
WHO suspension of Covaxin procurement
Japan's decision comes days after the World Health Organization suspended procurement and supply of Covaxin citing issues following an inspection at the company’s facilities.
The Indian vaccine maker has committed to address deficiencies in good manufacturing practices and is developing a corrective and preventive action plan, the World Health Organization said, without specifying when the suspension will be lifted. It recommended countries that have received the vaccine to “take actions as appropriate."
The World Health Organization granted emergency use authorization to the vaccine co-developed by India’s medical research agency and the local manufacturer in November. It said the suspension doesn’t change the vaccine’s risk assessment, and data indicates it is effective and no safety concerns exist.
Bharat Biotech had last week said it will temporarily slow down the production of Covaxin across its manufacturing facilities as it had completed supply obligations and expected a decrease in demand.
ICMR study on Covaxin
Meanwhile, in a recent ICMR study, breakthrough cases after full vaccination with Covaxin have shown a significant increase in the immune response against coronavirus variants of concern -- Beta, Delta and Omicron.
Individuals who recovered from Covid also showed significant immunity boost post-vaccination with Covaxin but lower than the breakthrough cases.
However, those who had taken two doses of Covaxin had very low neutralizing titres demonstrating the waning immunity after three months of the second dose of Covaxin, the study showed.
