INDIA has reportedly opted for a tit-for-tat policy vis-à-vis the UK after London was recently accused of being discriminatory against Indians travelling to that country despite taking the India-made AstraZeneca vaccine called Covishield.
If government sources are to be believed, all British citizens arriving in India from Monday (4) will have to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine irrespective of their vaccination status.
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“From October 4, all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake three COVID-19 RT-PCR tests - within 72 hours before travel, on arrival at the airport, and on Day 8 after arrival, and mandatory quarantine at home or in the destination address for 10 days after arrival in India,” sources said.
The UK government faced a massive backlash over its decision to not recognise visitors as vaccinated unless they got their Covid shots in a handful of select nations. Indian politician Shashi Tharoor even withdrew from an event scheduled in London to protest the decision.
India’s action comes after 10 days of inaction by the UK after Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had asked the new UK foreign secretary Liz Truss for an early resolution of the quarantine issue.
Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said, “Have raised the discriminatory nature of UK vaccine recognition for AstraZeneca but not Covishield. Discussions on, but if they do not satisfy us, we would be well within our rights to take reciprocal action.”
The UK made some changes to its policy to include the Covishield shot widely used in India as an approved vaccine but India still is not on the list of the acceptable zones to receive a dose. The result has seen people who received Covishield in the UK count as vaccinated, while those who got it in India do not.
British authorities have said that the issue was not the vaccine but India’s “vaccination certification” process and the two countries said “progress” was being made in recognising each other’s certificates after high-level interactions.
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