Nine European countries accept India’s Covishield vaccine for travel

• Shubham
• 01 July, 2021

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By: Shubham Ghosh

NINE European countries have decided to allow people who have taken the Covishield vaccine to travel to their territories, sources said on Thursday (1). The nine nations are Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain besides Switzerland and Estonia.

India had already asked the member countries of the European Union (EU) to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken either the Covishield or Covaxin vaccines and want to travel to Europe. The EU’s Digital Covid certificate or “Green Pass” is coming into effect on Thursday to facilitate free movement during the ongoing pandemic.

As per the framework, those who have taken vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency will be exempted from travel restrictions imposed within the EU region. The individual member countries also could accept vaccines that have been authorised nationally or recognised by the World Health Organisation.

Apprehensions spread in India that people who took either the Covishield or Covaxin jabs are unlikely to qualify for travelling to the EU member states under the ‘Green Pass’ scheme. The scheme will be mandatory for travelling to any European country and the document will serve as a proof that the person has been vaccinated against Covid-19.

India threatened with tit-for-tat policy
India also threatened to resort to a tit-for-tat policy if the EU hesitated to accept Indian vaccines for its vaccination passport. Sources in the country’s foreign ministry said that if the EU did not accept Covishield or Covaxin certificates, New Delhi will also not accept the European body’s certificates and people from the EU region will have to serve mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India.

Earlier this week, sources in the EU said the body’s individual members states will have the option to accept vaccines that have been authorised by the WHO, like Covishield, to get the bloc’s digital Covid certificate. India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday (28) took up the issue of including Covishield in the digital Covid certificate scheme during a meeting with Joseph Borrell Fontelles, the high representative of the EU, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Italy.