Covishield: Great Britain annoys India with vaccination certificate

The UK on Wednesday added Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine made in India, to its list of approved vaccines for international travelers but refused to accept the country’s certification, sparking a new series. Fully vaccinated Indians will continue to be treated as ‘not vaccinated’ and will be required to be quarantined upon arrival in the UK.

One day after India strongly objected to the UK’s “discriminatory” policy of treating fully vaccinated Indians as unvaccinated and warning of “mutual action”, the UK updated its travel advisories to include Covishield among the approved vaccines .

“Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as

Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Modern Takeda are considered approved vaccines, ”the updated UK guidelines state.

However, it did not accept Co-WIN certification, which is managed through the Department of Health and Family Affairs web portal for Covid-19 vaccine registration. India made strong exceptions to the UK government‘s refusal to accept certification, said people aware of the matter.

‘Unvaccinated Rules’

The UK government issued a statement stating: “We are working with the Indian government to investigate how we can extend UK recognition of vaccine certification to those who have been vaccinated by a competent public health authority in India – those who have been vaccinated Rules’…”

A spokesman for the UK High Commission in India said: “The UK is committed to reopening international travel as soon as possible. This announcement is another step in bringing people back to safer and more sustainable travel while at the same time improving healthcare. ”

The UK will move away from mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers from a number of countries starting October 4th. However, unless it accepts India’s vaccine certification, even Indian travelers who have received both vaccinations from Covishield must be quarantined for 10 days upon arrival in the UK in addition to a Covid-19 test prior to departure within three days prior to departure Travel and two more tests on the second and eighth day after arrival.

• Fully vaccinated Indians will continue to be treated as “not vaccinated” by the UK
• You have to put yourself under mandatory quarantine on arrival there
• UK Envoy for India Alex Ellis says in talks with authorities, including Co-WIN UK points to 62,500 student visas issued in the year ended June 2021, 30% more than last year
• India had strongly objected to Britain’s “discriminatory” policies

The UK’s approval of Covishield came a day after India warned of tit-for-tat measures. “The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and affects our citizens who travel to the UK,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told media representatives on Tuesday. “The Secretary of State has raised the issue with the new UK Secretary of State. I have been told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved.” He also said India has the right to take mutual action if the matter is not resolved.

Congress Chairman Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and the Serum Institute, Pune, supplied that country too! That smells like racism. ”

His party colleague Shashi Tharoor also slammed the UK, saying it was offensive to urge fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine and he was withdrawing from several events in that country in protest.