U.K recognizes Covishield; Indian passengers still have to quarantine

The UK has included Indian vaccine Covishield in the approved vaccine list and updated its travel policy.

However, Indian passengers who received two doses of Covishield still have to undergo quarantine as the U.K government do not recognize India’s CoWin vaccination certificate.

However, Indian officials have made it clear that there were no problems in CoWin vaccination certificates.

“There are no issues on CoWin with certification… system is entirely WHO compliant. We continue to have discussions with International Civil Aviation Organization. The UK High Commissioner visited me on September 2. They wanted to understand the system… technical aspects,” National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma told NDTV.

“A resource has been allocated and two further conversations have happened with their team. These were technical-level conversations,” he explained.

The British High Commission said: “We are engaging with Government of India to explore how we can expand UK recognition of certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”

Updated UK guidelines say, “Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Modern Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.”

Earlier also, the U.K had informed India that the problem was with CoWin certificate and they were not against the Covishield vaccine.

India warned reciprocal measures after it learned that the U.K failed to recognize CoWin certificate and imposed mandatory quarantine on Indian travelers.

Earlier yesterday India had warned the U.K reciprocal measures if they failed to recognize Covishield-vaccinated people are vaccinated.

“The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and impacts our citizens travelling to the UK. The External Affairs Minister has raised the issue strongly with the new UK foreign secretary. I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had told reporters yesterday.