Covishield Should Be Recognised in Travel Schemes: UK PM Johnson

UK PM Boris Johnson said he saw no reason why Indian-made Covishield should not be accepted for travel schemes.

(Photo: PTI)

The Union Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, 2 July, said that there was no reason why people who received Covishield – the Indian-made AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, should be left out of vaccine passport schemes, reported Reuters.

This comes after the European Union did not recognise the vaccine for travel purposes.

"I see no reason at all why the MHRA-approved vaccines should not be recognised as part of the vaccine passports and I'm very confident that that will not prove to be a problem," Johnson said at a joint news conference with Germany's Angela Merkel, referring to Britain's medicines regulator.

Amid row over the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) not granting a 'Green Pass' to travellers from India who have been fully vaccinated with Covishield, Netherlands has now allowed people inoculated with the vaccine to visit the country, news agency ANI reported on Friday, 2 July.

This takes the total number of European nations recognising the vaccine to 10. Earlier, nine European countries – Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain – had reportedly confirmed accepting travellers administered with Covishield, according to reports.

"Versions of EU-approved vaccines permitted abroad are equivalent to the mentioned EU-approved vaccines for proof of vaccination protection," a German Embassy spokesperson told ANI.

Later on 2 July, India said it expects its vaccinated citizens to be treated at par with those who have received the jab in the European Union (EU) states.

In a press conference, External Affairs Ministry's Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said:

“Our expectation is that Indians who have been vaccinated through our domestic vaccination programme would be treated at par with those vaccinated in the EU and the CoWIN vaccination certificate would be recognised by the EU on a reciprocal basis.”

(With inputs from Reuters, ANI, PTI)