Indians who are fully vaccinated with Covishield or the other UK-approved vaccine won’t be quarantined after they arrive in Britain from October 11, the diplomat to India said on Thursday, ending a row over what was perceived as unfair imposition of COVId-19 quarantine rules.
“No quarantine for India travellers to uk fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from 11 October. due to Indian government for close cooperation over last month,” British diplomat to India Alex Ellis tweeted on Thursday.
On October 1, in response to the united kingdom quarantine rules for Indians and citizens of several nations, including those vaccinated with UK-approved Covishield, India had imposed mandatory 10-day quarantine for British citizens no matter vaccination status.
Described as discriminatory and even “colonialist”, the united kingdom government had faced intense backlash over its refusal to recognise visitors as vaccinated unless they received their shots in an exceedingly few select countries.
“I’m also making changes so travellers visiting England have fewer entry requirements, by recognising those with fully-vax status from 37 new countries and territories including India, Turkey and Ghana, treating them the identical as UK fully vax passengers,” Britain’s Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps tweeted.
“The decision was taken after close technical cooperation between our ministries taking public health factors into consideration,” a British High Commission spokesperson said in a very statement on Thursday.
The spokesperson said the united kingdom keeps efficacy data and knowledge on vaccine rollout internationally under review, and has kept visa rules under constant review throughout the pandemic to stay borders open whilst gradually and safely restarting travel.
If someone isn’t fully vaccinated with one in every of the four UK-recognised vaccines – Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen – or any formulation of those vaccines, including Covishield, the person must take a pre-departure test, and must take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 and on or after day 8, and self-isolate for 10 days.
India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla had called the united kingdom rules “discriminatory” and warned that “reciprocal action” is also warranted.
British officials had told NDTV that the difficulty wasn’t the vaccine itself but the problems with India’s “vaccination certification” process and therefore the two sides announced “progress” in recognising each other’s certificates after high-level talks.
Dr RS Sharma, CEO of India’s National Health Authority, said certification after coronavirus vaccinations in India may be a centralised national system managed through the CoWIN app and portal and there are “no issues” with the platform which is entirely compliant with World Health Organisation standards.
