G-20 health officials look into ways to minimise Covid-19 travel confusion

Health officials from the Group of 20 (G-20) countries are looking into ways to standardise Covid-19 protocols to make it easier for international travel.

"We harmonise the protocols… to avoid confusion, but the details should be left to each nation to decide, depending on their needs and conditions. Some countries may require PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, others antigen, for example," Indonesia's Health Minister Budi Sadikin told reporters on the sidelines of the first G-20 health working group meeting.

Mr Budi said new digital technology would help facilitate mutual recognition of digital tracing applications such as Peduli Lindungi - Indonesia's equivalent of Singapore's TraceTogether - which can store information including test results and status of vaccination. Peduli Lindungi has been recognised in 82 countries, according to Indonesia's Health Ministry.

Dr Garrett Mehl, a senior World Health Organisation scientist who leads its digital health technology unit, noted that some travellers currently have to rely on health certificates as evidence of their vaccination status when arriving at their destinations. These certificates are not acceptable everywhere and that needs to be addressed, he said.

"This meeting very much focuses on how we understand and begin to think through the diversity of certificate types that can be globally harmonised so certificates issued by one country should be understood and verified in another country," Dr Mehl told reporters as the two-day meeting got under way yesterday.

Later, Dr Imran Pambudi, Indonesia's Health Ministry's quarantine coordinator, said: "Travellers with health certificates may use QR codes issued by their home country's authorities at the point of entry at the destination countries to prove status of vaccination and test results."

Indonesia, which assumed the G-20 presidency last December, is hosting the first of three health working groups this week, with some officials attending the meetings in person in Yogyakarta and others taking part virtually.

The second working group meeting (to discuss a global health fund to support a possible future pandemic) will be in Lombok in June and the third (to promote sharing of medical research and redistribution of manufacturing hubs) will be in Bali by mid-November.

Among Jakarta's priority issues are strengthening the global health architecture and fostering a sustainable energy transition. The theme of its presidency this year is Recover Together, Recover Stronger.

The G-20 comprises 19 major advanced and emerging countries and the European Union.

Singapore is not a G-20 member but has been invited to attend the November summit. It has been invited to many past G-20 summits and related meetings as the convenor of the Global Governance Group, which is an informal grouping of 30 small and medium-sized members of the United Nations.

When asked by The Straits Times if the results of the first health working group meeting would likely be adopted worldwide, Mr Budi said: "G-20 is a group of countries with the largest economies, hence their influence is the greatest and also their movement of people is very significant. Starting the endeavour from the G-20 would make global adoption easier."