New UK Travel Rules Upset India As Fully Vaccinated Indians Still Have To Undergo 10 Days’ Quarantine
India is upset with the new travel guidelines issued by the United Kingdom as they insisted the strict travel restrictions on Indian travelers including 10 days mandatory quarantine.
According to a Hindustan Times report, people familiar with foreign secretary Harsh Shringla and external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on condition of anonymity that they were upset with the new development.
According to the new guidelines issued by the United Kingdom on Friday, the Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and one of the two main vaccines being used for the domestic immunization program, will not be accepted.
This means Indian travelers who received the aforesaid vaccines would be considered unvaccinated and they would be subjected to undergo 10 days quarantine and other tests. This will lead them to pay for tests and quarantine expenses.
Majority of the travelers who reach the U.K from India are students who study in British Universities and they will have to incur the expenses for tests and quarantine expenses.
The list of vaccines the U.K is considering valid:
- Oxford-AstraZeneca
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- Moderna
- Single shot Janssen Vaccine
“Under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine program overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.
The rules also consider who have received vaccines under public health bodies in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei,Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan as fully vaccinated .
The rules will be effective from October 4 on wards.
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.
