EU excludes Covishield from new COVID ‘Green Pass’ eligibility

The
European Union will start issuing a ‘Green Pass’ from July 1 to enable free
movement within the bloc. However, people inoculated with the Covishield vaccine
will not be eligible for the digital pass.

A number of
EU members have started issuing so-called ‘vaccine passports’ for workers or tourists
to freely move across boundaries in the bloc. The pass will prove that a person
has received their shots or have tested negative or has the natural immunity
from an earlier infection.

While the
EU called for members to not consider the type of vaccine in issuing the pass,
specifications in the ‘Green Pass’ limit its granting to only those “vaccines that have received EU-wide marketing
authorization” according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

There are four
vaccines that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), EU’s
medical watchdog. They are Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Moderna, Vaxzervria
(AstraZeneca), Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

Meanwhile,
Covishield, another AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Instite of India
(SII) in Pune, is yet to receive approval by the EMA. Covishield has largely
been administered in Indians and citizens of low and middle-income countries
which received doses distributed by the WHO under the COVAX initiative.

But member
states have the authority to issue passes to those who have been inoculated
with vaccines other than the ones approved by the EU. Iceland says it will
allow travellers that have been inoculated with EU and WHO-approved vaccines. Other
than the ones approved by the EU, WHO has also approved Covishield, Corona Vac
and Sinopharm.

But France has
clarified it will only allow entry for travellers vaccinated with only the
EU-approved vaccines. EU leaders are targeting vaccinating at least 70% of the
population where it plans to introduce the digital certificates.