- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday (21) said at a press conference in New Delhi that the UK government’s decision to not recognise the India-made Covishield as a legitimate anti-Covid vaccine is discriminatory and affects Indian citizens travelling to the European country.
“The non-recogition 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.
ALSO READ: Tharoor pulls out of UK event over quarantine rule
The foreign secretary’s remarks came on the same day India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted about discussing the matter with British foreign secretary Liz Truss on the sidelines of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly that kicked off on Tuesday.
Pleased to meet new UK Foreign Secretary @trussliz.
Discussed the progress of Roadmap 2030. Appreciated her contribution on the trade side.
Exchanged views on developments in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific.
Urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest. pic.twitter.com/pc49NS7zcw
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 21, 2021
The meeting took place in the wake of the UK announcing the new Covid-related travel restrictions that sparked an outrage in India. Senior Indian politician Shashi Tharoor decided to pull out of an event in London to protest the move.
Under the UK’s travel restrictions, Indian travellers who have received both doses of Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune in the Indian state of Maharashtra will be considered unvaccinated and undergo quarantine for 10 days.
Covishield was developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca. It was one of the two vaccines deployed by India – Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, being the other.
The expanded list of nations whose vaccines are recognised in the UK does not feature India, which means Indians who have taken Covishield would have to undergo the polymerase chain reaction tests as well as quarantine.
Authorities in the UK said they were engaging with India to explore how it could expand the recognition of the vaccine certification issued by their Indian counterparts, the Press Trust of India reported.
“We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand the UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India,” a British high commission spokesperson in New Delhi told the news agency when asked about the concerns in India.
