(Reuters) – Some delegates attending the annual meetings of the Chinese parliament and its advisory body due to begin this week will propose issuing COVID-19 vaccine passports that they say will restore some normality, the Global Times reported on Wednesday.
Zhu Zhengfu, a member of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told the paper China should promote mutual recognition of such vaccine passports globally to boost international tourism and economic exchanges.
Zhu also told the Global Times, published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper, that international arrivals could be exempted from quarantine requirements if they have a negative nucleic acid test and a vaccine passport.
The annual meetings of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, National People’s Congress (NPC), and its advisory body CPPCC are set to begin on Friday and Thursday, respectively. Delegates attending these NPC and CPPCC meetings submit proposals for new legislation or regulation for consideration during this time, though they do not all become law.
The paper said Witman Hung Wai-man, a NPC deputy, also proposed the central government issue vaccine passports that will be recognized in the mainland and Hong Kong. Residents of the city with such a passport and a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result should be able to travel to the mainland without being subject to the quarantine requirements, he said.
China has largely managed to subdue COVID-19 after the initial outbreak that emerged in late 2019 and paralysed most of the country early last year.
The pandemic has since taken hold around the world and claimed nearly 2.65 million lives globally to date.
(Reporting by Se Young Lee in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
