According to new rules, Indian travellers who have received both doses of Covishield will be considered unvaccinated and have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days
India has called this UK vaccine policy mandating quarantine even for fully vaccinated Indians a “discriminatory policy”.
The UK on Monday said it is engaging with India to explore how it could expand the recognition of the Covid-19 vaccine certification issued by Indian authorities amid criticism of the new British travel rules.
The comments by a spokesperson in the British High Commission here came amid concerns in India over the latest Covid-related travel restrictions announced by the United Kingdom.
According to new rules, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.
“The basic issue is that the vaccine called Covishield, of which the original manufacturer, is in the UK. We have provided 5 million vaccine doses to the UK at their request. This has been used by their health system,” said an MEA statement.
The External Affairs Ministry has further said, “Non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy. EAM has raised the issue with his UK counterpart. Certain assurances have been given to resolve the matter at the earliest.”
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday raised the issue with his UK counterpart during a meeting and urged for an "early resolution" of the quarantine issue.
“We have offered our partner countries of mutual recognition of vaccines. But these are reciprocal actions. If we don’t get satisfaction we will be well within our rights to impose reciprocal measures,” said the government in its statement.
Meanwhile, Jaishankar said after his meeting that he has “urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest”.
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