'Smacks of Racism': Anger in India as UK Refuses to Relax Rules for Those Vaccinated With Covishield
09:55 GMT 20.09.2021 (Updated: 15:15 GMT 28.05.2023)
© REUTERS / RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI
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Covishield, Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V are the three vaccines being administered in India. Although Covishield uses the same technology as Vaxzevria (also developed by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca), the final product is not exactly the same due to differences in manufacturing conditions.
Two of India's former federal ministers have slammed the United Kingdom for refusing to further relax travel rules for incoming passengers vaccinated with Covishield.
The vaccine has been developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Jairam Ramesh, a senior leader of India's main opposition party Congress, said on Monday that the UK’s decision to not recognise Covishield “smacked of racism”.
Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and The Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism. https://t.co/GtKOzMgydf
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 20, 2021
Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion &out of launch events for the UK edition of my book #TheBattleOfBelonging (published there as #TheStruggleForIndiasSoul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing! https://t.co/YEVy3Ez5dj
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 20, 2021
In its official advisory issued on 18 September, the UK government scrapped the “traffic light” system of categorising countries under "amber", "red" and "green" lists, replacing the three of them with an overarching red list. The new travel rules will kick in on 4 October.
While travellers from erstwhile "red" countries were altogether barred from entering the UK, unless they were British of Irish passport holders or residents, those entering the country from "amber" nations were required to undergo three COVID tests and a mandatory 10-day quarantine before being permitted to enter.
Passengers from the "green" countries were required to undergo just two COVID tests, one before and one after entering the UK, with quarantine requirements if the second one turned up positive results.
On 11 August, India was moved from the "red" to the "amber" list, signifying a reduced COVID threat perception from incoming travellers from the South Asian nation.
Covishield Not in the List of Approved Vaccines
Covishield, one of the mainstays of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government-backed vaccination programme, still isn’t on the list of vaccines approved by the UK's National Health Service.
To date, only the Oxford/AstraZeneca (not the one manufactured by the SII), Pfizer/BioNTech and Janssen vaccines (available later this year) have been recognised in the UK.
Covishield, however, features in the list of vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is being distributed throughout the world through the COVAX facility.
Seven other vaccines have also been approved by the Geneva-headquartered global organisation - Pfizer/BioNTech , AstraZeneca EU, Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac-CoronaVac.
As Covishield is still not on the list of approved vaccines, travellers inoculated with the India-made jab will still have to undergo tests before departure and upon arrival in the UK.
A diplomatic row had erupted between India and the EU in July this year after Brussels refused to recognise the validity of those jabbed with Covishied in the "Green Pass", which allows vaccinated people to travel freely in the bloc.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reasoned at the time that Covishield didn’t have “marketing authorisation” in the EU bloc. While applying for marketing authorisation is the responsibility of vaccine manufacturers, the Indian government nonetheless took the matter up with its EU counterparts.
After India threatened the incoming EU travellers with reciprocal mandatory quarantine measures, seven EU nations yielded to India’s demand to include Covishield in the country list of approved vaccines.
