The United Kingdom updated its travel advisory on Wednesday, stating that Covishield, a coronavirus disease vaccine co-developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will be accepted as an approved vaccine for visitors to the UK from any country beginning October 4.
However, despite the fact that India has been added to the ‘amber list,’ Indians who have received both doses of Covishield would still be required to quarantine in the UK due to a problem with ‘vaccine certification.’
Notably, India had earlier protested the UK’s non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine and warned of “reciprocal measures” if the ‘discriminatory police’ was not amended.
In its new advisory, the UK said that a traveller will be considered fully vaccinated if they are inoculated with a full dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in select countries.
The advisory further said that along with Covishield, other formulations of the four aforementioned vaccines – as AstraZeneca Vaxzevria or Moderna Takeda – shall also qualify as approved vaccines.
