The United Kingdom has updated its travel regulation to include Covishield as a permitted vaccine, however Indians who have been double-vaccinated with the shot are still need to quarantine, raising “vaccination certification complications.”
“Formulations of the four mentioned vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria, and Modern Takeda, qualify as licenced vaccines,” according to updated UK criteria.
Indians who have received two doses of Covishield will still be quarantined. The inference is that the issue is not Covishield, but rather concerns about immunisation certification in India.
The UK government has stated that it is “collaborating with India to expand vaccine certification recognition.”
This could spark new controversy as India threatened “reciprocal steps” if Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, was not recognised.
“The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory regulation that affects our residents travelling to the United Kingdom. The problem has been forcefully raised by the External Affairs Minister with the new Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. I’ve been told that assurances have been offered that this problem would be resolved “Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary, told reporters yesterday.
The United Kingdom has updated its travel regulation to include Covishield as a permitted vaccine, however Indians who have been double-vaccinated with the shot are still need to quarantine, raising “vaccination certification complications.”
