The UK government has revised its travel policy to include Covishield as an approved vaccine. However, it says Indians double-vaccinated with the shot still have to quarantine, raising “vaccination certification issues“.

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

Meanwhile, Indians, who are vaccinated with two doses of Covishield, will still need to undergo quarantine. The implication is that the problem is not Covishield but doubts over vaccination certification in India.

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The UK government has said it is “working with India to expand recognition of vaccine certification.”

This new guidelines from the UK government, has raised fresh trouble after India warned of “reciprocal measures” if Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, was not recognised.

“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.

Meanwhile, National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma, in an interview with NDTV said that there are no issues with the CoWin app or the vaccine certification process. 

“There are no issues on CoWin with certification… the system is entirely WHO compliant. We continue to have discussions with the International Civil Aviation Organization as well. UK High Commissioner visited me on September 2… they wanted to understand the system… the technical aspects,” NDTV reported Dr Sharma as saying.

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What does the new rule say?

According to the new rule, only those who have got a double-dose vaccine such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, or Moderna or the single-dose Janssen vaccine “under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.

In the expanded list, people who are also vaccinated by 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 will be considered fully vaccinated.

However, this list does not include India. Therefore, Indians must take a pre-travel COVID test, another one on arrival, and quarantine for 10 days.