UK recognises vaccine but keeps India out of eligible countries list flagging jab certification
A day after New Delhi slammed the UK for adopting a “discriminatory” policy against Covishield and warned of “reciprocal measures,” the British Government on Wednesday added it to the list of approved Covid-19 vaccines but kept India out of the eligible countries list flagging the vaccine’s certification. Fully vaccinated Indians will thus still have to undergo a 10-day self isolation or quarantine after their arrival in Britain.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, was recently excluded from a list of eligible Covid-19 vaccines recognised under Britain’s reviewed international travel norms, effective from October 4.
The updated UK travel guidelines now said, “Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Modern Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.”
The site explains that from 4 am, October 4, those who have taken vaccines from a “relevant public health body” in specific countries will be considered “fully vaccinated”. That list does not include India.
This suggests that Indians vaccinated with two doses of Covishield, produced by SII, will still need to quarantine even though India is now on the Amber list.
The guidelines provided in the latest advisory suggest that Britain has no problems with the formulation of the Covishield vaccine, but with the vaccine certification provided by India.
India had earlier protested the UK’s non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine and warned of “reciprocal measures” if the “discriminatory policy” was not amended.
A British High Commission statement on Tuesday said “We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”
Certification after Covid jabs in India is a centralised national system managed through the CoWin app and portal. RS Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority, said there are “no issues” on CoWin with Covid certification.
“The system is entirely World Health Organization (WHO) compliant. We continue to have discussions with the International Civil Aviation Organization as well. The UK High Commissioner visited me on September 2. They wanted to understand the CoWin system, the technical aspects. A resource has been allocated to them for this purpose and two further conversations have happened with their team. These were technical-level conversations,” Sharma said.
Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla, expressing “delight” at Covishield being recognised, noted that the matter for Indians travelling to the UK was still not resolved.
“We are delighted that Covishield is recognised as a vaccine equivalent to AstraZeneca on the official gov.uk website. However, the matter for travel and quarantine is not resolved and all those looking to travel to the UK should carefully follow official entry guidelines,’’ Poonawalla said.
The revised advisory from the UK’s Department for Transport and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) also said “You must have had a complete course of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before you arrive in England,” it adds.
The move will also mean that a pre-departure PCR test is no longer required as long as vaccinated travellers pre-book a day two test post-arrival in England and complete the compulsory passenger locator form in advance.
From October 4, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of Covid-19 risk will be scrapped and replaced with one red list only.
Taking strong exception to the UK government’s decision to restrict entry of Indians there due to the corona pandemic, India on Tuesday termed it as a “discriminating policy” and warned “reciprocal” action.
Sounding this stern note, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla also said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed the issue with his British counterpart Liz Truss in New York on Monday. The issue was likely to be resolved soon following certain assurances, Shringla said. “Urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest,” Jaishankar tweeted after he met Truss.
Enunciating India’s position, Shringla said the UK decision to not recognize Covishield is a “discriminating policy” thereby creating trouble for the Indians travelling to England.
In an announcement on Monday, UK said Indian travellers, who have received both doses of the Covishield, will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days there.
Adopting a tough stance, Shringla had also cautioned the UK that India is well within its rights to resort to reciprocal action over the new Covid rules.
Addressing a news conference here, the Foreign Secretary said, “The basic issue is that, here’s a vaccine -- Covishield -- which is a licensed product of a UK company manufactured in India of which we have supplied five million doses to the UK at the request of the government. But if we don’t get satisfaction we would be within our rights to impose reciprocal measures.”