Covishield approved in UK, travel advisory revised after strong objections from India

[reporter2]

India slams UK’s new travel rules as ‘discriminatory,’ warns of retaliation

Sep 22 2021

Saheli Roy Choudhury

The U.K. last week announced that fully vaccinated individuals from a list of 17 countries and territories will not have to quarantine upon arrival in England.

Missing from the list was India, where the predominant Covid vaccine used in the country is identical to the one developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca.

India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla called the U.K.’s decision not to recognize the Indian version of the vaccine “discriminatory” and warned of reciprocal measures, though he did not elaborate.

India slammed the U.K.’s decision to exclude vaccinated Indian travelers from its new travel guidelines, calling it “discriminatory” and warning of reciprocal measures.

The British government will next month allow fully vaccinated travelers from a list of countries to skip quarantine upon arrival — but Indians who are fully vaccinated will still need to be quarantined.

The U.K. last week eased travel restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals from 17 countries and territories, including Japan and Singapore, saying they would not have to stay in quarantine for 10 days after arriving in England.

From Oct. 4, travelers from those destinations would have to show that they received a full course of one of the Covid vaccines currently approved in the U.K., at least two weeks prior to their arrival. The approved vaccines are: Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen.

India’s main vaccine is the one from Oxford University and British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca — but it is manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India under the name Covishield. It has been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

“The basic issue is that here is a vaccine, Covishield, which is a licensed product of a U.K. company, manufactured in India,” India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla said Tuesday at a press briefing. “We have supplied 5 million doses to the U.K., at the request of the government of the U.K. We understand that this has been used in their national health system.”

“Therefore, non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and does impact on those of our citizens traveling to the U.K.,” he added.

Under the new rules, Indian travelers will be required to quarantine after arriving in England and must undergo three rounds of testing, regardless of their vaccination status. Many Indian nationals typically travel to the U.K. for work, study, leisure travel or to visit family.

India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, raised the issue “strongly” with U.K. Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss, according to Shringla.

“I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue would be resolved,” he said.

Jaishankar tweeted that during his meeting with Truss in New York, he “urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest.”

Indian opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said he pulled out of a debate engagement at the University of Cambridge due to the quarantine order.

“It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine, he said.

Another lawmaker, Jairam Ramesh, said the decision “smacks of racism.”

“We will have to see how it goes, but if we don’t get satisfaction, we would be within our rights to impose reciprocal measures,” Shringla added, without elaborating what some of those measures could be.

Government data showed India has so far administered more than 825 million vaccine doses in one of the world’s largest inoculation drives — roughly 15% of the country’s eligible population has received the two doses required to be considered fully vaccinated, according to online publication Our World In Data.

The country’s home-made vaccine from Bharat Biotech, called Covaxin, has yet to be approved by the World Health Organization. It will likely to further complicate international travel plans for many Indian nationals.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/22/indi...taliation.html

[reporter2]

Covishield approved in UK, travel advisory revised after strong objections from India

The UK has revised its vaccine policy for travelers from India, and Covishield jabs have been approved in the travel advisory.

Sep 22, 2021

After severe backlash from India, the United Kingdom (UK) administration has decided to make revisions in its travel advisory. As per the revised vaccine policy for travelers in the UK, the Covishield vaccine has been approved for Indian citizens.

In an official release, the UK government has stated that Covishield qualifies as an approved vaccine for all travelers. The statement issued by the government states, “Formulations of the four listed vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria, and Moderna Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.”

The official notice issued by the UK government also states that the person needs to have had a complete course of the approved vaccines mentioned by the administration, at least 14 days before they arrive in England.

News reports suggest that Indians who have been vaccinated with two doses of the Covishield vaccine will still be required to quarantine on arrival. This insinuates that the UK government has doubts over the vaccination certificated in India, as stated by media reports.

A person will allowed to travel to the UK if they are “vaccinated under an approved vaccination programme in the UK, Europe, USA or UK vaccine programme overseas with a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua, and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan.”

In an advisory issued by the UK yesterday, the Covishield vaccine was not included in the list of approved jabs, which received a lot of backlashes. Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla also said that the move was discriminatory and will impact a lot of Indian travelers.

The UK government had further assured the Indian government that this issue will be resolved, said Shringla at a media briefing.

[reporter2]

Coronavirus India Live Updates: UK approves Covishield in updated travel advisory but India not among eligible countries

Covid-19 Live Updates today September 22: There is confusion over the UK government's vaccine recognition process for Indian travellers as even though Covishield is on an updated international travel advisory, India is not yet on a list of 17 approved countries.

September 22, 2021

Coronavirus pandemic live news update: A day after India threatened to retaliate against new British travel rules putting those who are vaccinated with Covishield in the category of the “unvaccinated”, the vaccine got approved in the updated UK travel advisory.

However, there is confusion over the UK government’s vaccine recognition process for Indian travellers as even though Oxford/AstraZeneca Covishield, the India-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, is on an updated international travel advisory, India is not yet on a list of 17 approved countries.

The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said on Wednesday that they are unable to confirm this and will require further clarifications even though the advisory states, “Formulations of the 4 listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.”

On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had called the UK government’s decision discriminatory. “The non-recognition 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,” he said.

UK had earlier said that people from India flying to the UK, even if fully vaccinated, would have to undergo a 10-day quarantine, during which they will have to get tested for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday reported 26,964 new Covid-19 infections. Active cases have come down to 3.01 lakh; number of deaths reported on Tuesday were 383, pushing the total death toll to 4.45 lakhs. Whereas, Kerala recorded 15,768 Covid-19 cases reflecting decline in active cases, which at present is 1.61 lakh. Kerala also reported 214 deaths due to Covid-19 infection.

[reporter2]

Problem Isn't Covishield But India's Vaccine Certificate, Says UK

A top health official told NDTV there are "no issues" with the Indian vaccine certificate.

September 22, 2021

New Delhi: Covishield is now an approved vaccine on the UK's revised guidelines for travel after a furious India warned of "reciprocal measures", but double-vaccinated Indians still have to quarantine because of "vaccination certification issues", according to UK officials.

Officials have implied the problem is not Covishield but doubts over vaccine certification in India.

Responding to the new sticking point, a top health official told NDTV there are "no issues" with the Indian vaccine certificate.

The updated UK travel guidelines say, "Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Modern Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines." The site explains that from 4 am, October 4, those who have taken vaccines from a "relevant public health body" in specific countries will be considered "fully vaccinated". That list does not include India.

This suggests that Indians vaccinated with two doses of Covishield, produced by Serum Institute of India (SII), will still need to quarantine even though India is now on the Amber list.

Speaking to NDTV, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis said, "India is still on the Amber category because there are still some COVID-19 cases in India. Most other nations on the list that do not need any quarantine are in the green category, where the number of active cases are very low in comparison."

"While Covishield is approved, the UK government is still trying to understand how the Indian Covid vaccine app works. And let me assure you, that this is a two-way process. We are also letting India know how the UK government Covid app works. Once we understand this better and know that it is absolutely safe, we can go ahead and remove the quarantine for Indian travellers," he said.

A British High Commission statement yesterday said: "We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India."

Certification after Covid jabs in India is a centralised national system managed through the CoWin app and portal.

RS Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority, told NDTV there are "no issues" on CoWin with Covid certification.

"The system is entirely WHO (World Health Organisation) compliant. We continue to have discussions with the International Civil Aviation Organisation as well. The UK High Commissioner visited me on September 2. They wanted to understand the CoWin system, the technical aspects. A resource has been allocated to them for this purpose and two further conversations have happened with their team. These were technical-level conversations," Dr Sharma said.

Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla, expressing "delight" at Covishield being recognised, noted that the matter for Indians travelling to the UK was still not resolved.

"We are delighted that Covishield is recognised as a vaccine equivalent to AstraZeneca on the official gov.uk website. However, the matter for travel and quarantine is not resolved and all those looking to travel to the UK should carefully follow official entry guidelines,'' Mr Poonawalla told NDTV.

India had warned of "reciprocal measures" if Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, was not recognised.

"The non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory 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.

[reporter2]

Covishield: UK recognises Covid jab after India outcry

By Soutik Biswas
India correspondent

The UK government has amended its foreign travel guidance to clarify that the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine is an approved jab.

But it is not clear whether people from India can travel to the UK without having to self-isolate for 10 days.

The UK's refusal to recognise Covishield had triggered a firestorm of protests in India.

With more than 721 million doses administered so far, Covishield is India's primary vaccine.

On Tuesday, India described the rule as "discriminatory" and asked the UK to stop requiring fully-vaccinated Indians to self-isolate on arrival.

At present, India is not listed as a country where people are recognised as fully vaccinated even if they've had both doses of an approved jab.

So, Indians travelling to Britain have to self-isolate as well as book and take Covid-19 tests before they are allowed to move freely.

Last week, the UK announced new rules - which will come into effect on 4 October - which mandate that travellers from a number of countries arriving in England do not have to self-isolate if they are fully vaccinated. India was not included in that list either.

Prominent Indians called the rule "highly discriminatory", "racist" and "asinine", among other things.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had taken up the matter "strongly" with his UK counterpart Liz Truss, according to India's foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

It is "a discriminatory policy and does impact our citizens travelling to the UK", Mr Shringla told reporters. He had warned that India might take "reciprocal measures" if the UK did not address India's concerns.

Such measures generally include India imposing similar restrictions on those arriving from Britain. British travellers to India are thermally screened for fever on arrival, and provide a negative Covid-19 test. They do not need to quarantine.

A leading MP from the main opposition Congress party, Jairam Ramesh, had tweeted that the "bizarre" decision "smacked of racism".

Others said the move appeared to be a "money making opportunity".

Shashi Tharoor, author and Congress party MP, said he had cancelled a planned tour to participate in a debate at Cambridge University and to promote his new book in protest against the move.

"Why should Indians be deemed to be lesser breeds than others? It is deeply offensive that fully vaccinated Indians have to quarantine, while others who may have taken the same vaccine in other countries, do not," Mr Tharoor wrote in The Quint.

"The UK has done its image in India a profound disservice by failing to offer clarity on the question at the heart of the issue."

About 25% of adults in India have been fully vaccinated so far - an estimated 150 million have received both doses of Covishield at home.

The Serum Institute of India - the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer which makes the jab under licence from AstraZeneca - has also supplied millions of doses to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America under deals signed with various governments and as part of the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.

In July, British PM Boris Johnson said he was "very confident" there "will not prove to be a problem" for travellers who had received an Indian-made Covid jab. Downing Street said the UK's medicines regulator had shared its data on the jab with its European counterpart. Vaccine expert Prof Adam Finn said the vaccines - AstraZeneca and Covishield - were "exactly the same stuff". And 23 countries of the European Union have approved the Covishield jab.

"There seems to be no obvious explanation [behind the rule]. Clearly different standards are at play, depending on which part of the world the traveller is coming from," says Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, an Indian government-backed think-tank.

Did the move have something to do with some reports of fake vaccines? WHO had reported that counterfeit versions of Covishield were seized by authorities in India and Africa between July and August and called for their removal from circulation.

Or does the rule have something to do with India's "dodgy documentation", as Mr Tharoor quoted a source as telling him.

In other words, there were concerns about whether the vaccination certificates produced by Indian travellers were genuine or not.

Earlier this month, Check Point, a leading US-based cyber security company, reported that there was a surging black market in vaccine certificates on Telegram in 28 countries. (This followed US President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate announcements.) In India, these certificates were selling for $75 apiece, the firm reported.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in India told the BBC that its government was "working with India to expand recognition of vaccine certification".

Mr Tharoor says the Indian certificates carry QR codes which can be verified and there "may be some other ways of confirming tangible evidence" of their authenticity. "Making it such a stumbling block reeks of bad faith," he says.

Meanwhile, Indian travellers bound for the UK are distraught and say it is "ridiculous" to be in quarantine despite being fully vaccinated. Those who have travelled to Britain continue to self-isolate for 10 days and get tests done at their own expense.

"Why are they discriminating against our vaccines? This is all adding more stress to what is an already stressful time and adding to our costs," says Hema Anand, mother of a student who has travelled to the UK and is now in self-isolation.