Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: A day after India threatened to retaliate against new British travel rules refusing to recognise Indian vaccines, the UK government put “Covishield” on its approved list but there is still no respite for travellers from India from “compulsory quarantine” as the UK authorities raised doubts over “vaccine certification” in India.
The UK officials said there was no problem with “Covishield” which was a mere Indianisation of the Oxford University – AstraZeneca developed vaccine, but doubts were over “vaccine certification in India.” This prompted the Indian authorities to refute the allegations emphsising that there was “no issue” with India’s CoWin certification which was fully World Health Organisation compliant.
The UK’s new travel advisory issued on Tuesday to come into effect from October 4 said the travellers from India even if have taken both the vaccine doses would be treated as “unvaccinated” and would have to undergo compulsory 10 day quarantine and at least two paid Covid-19 tests on their arrival in the UK. In the face of widespread criticism for such “racist and discriminatory decision, India threatened taking “reciprocal measure” if the advisory against Indians was not withdrawn immediately.
“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 on Tuesday.
His comments came as Foreign Minister S Jaishankar tweeted about discussing the matter with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, while on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Covishield already has EUA, or emergency use approval, status from the World Health Organization.
The updated UK travel guidelines issued on Wednesday said, “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 of the countries published on the website, however, still did not include India suggesting that the Indians vaccinated with two doses of Covishield, produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) will still need to quarantine.
In response to India’s threat, the UK officials in the British High Commission in Delhi had said that they were “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, refuting the British allegation asserted that there were “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.
SII’s Adar Poonawalla, expressing “delight” at Covishield being recognized but 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,” Poonawalla said.
In July also there was a controversy over Covishield’s acceptance by the European countries. The European Medical Association had approved Vaxzervria but not Covishield, prompting India to warn that it would rescind reciprocal authorisation.
Meanwhile, even as the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for India’s decision to resume vaccine export, the Tamil Nadu requested the Centre to postpone resumption of exports of vaccines, saying only one third of the country’s population have been fully inoculated so far and 115 crore vaccines would still be required to give the shots to all the people.
Minister for medical and family welfare Ma Subramanian put forth the request after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said that exports of surplus Covid-19 vaccines would resume next month under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme.
Talking to reporters after unveiling the simulation centre at Apollo Hospitals in Vanagaram, Subramanian said the global medical fraternity welcomed the vaccination programme in India, as inoculating people holds the key in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.
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.
On the global front, China’s northeastern city of Harbin, population 10 million, went into semi-shutdown after reporting new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases for the first time since early February. Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tested positive for COVID-19 hours after accompanying President Jair Bolsonaro to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.