New Delhi: Taking a strong stance on Unite Kingdom’s (UK) Covid-19 racist guidelines, India has made 10 days quarantine and a negative RT-PCR report mandatory for UK travelers irrespective of their vaccine status.
United Kingdom had reviewed its vaccine policy, after India lashed out on its Covid-19 guidelines. According to the new guidelines double- dose of Covishield will be recognised but the quarantine rules will still apply.
Updated UK guidelines say, “Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Modern Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.”
UK has said that the vaccines are not problematic but its certification is. The UK government has said it is “working with India to expand recognition of vaccine certification.”
The Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla said that non recognition of Covishield is discriminatory, “The non-recogition of Covishield is a discriminating 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.
His comments came on a day Foreign Minister S Jaishankar tweeted about discussing the matter with the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on the sidelines of the high-level 76th session of the UN General Assembly.
The meeting in New York took place the same day as the UK announced new Covid-related travel restrictions that sparked sharp criticism and concerns in India.
Earlier, the UK denied to recognise any Indian vaccine, but now it said it will recognise Covishield but still the Indian travellers have to go under 10 days quarantine.
The list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in the UK does not include India, which means people vaccinated with Covishield — the Indian variant of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured under licence here — would be subject to restrictions applying to the unvaccinated.
“The basic issue is that — here is a vaccine, Covishield, which is a licensed product of a UK company, manufactured in India, of which we have supplied 5 million doses to the UK at the request of the Government of the UK. We understand this has been used in the National Health System,” Shringla said in New Delhi in response to questions.
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