Friday, 02 July 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
In a major diplomatic victory for India, nine countries — Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Estonia, and Switzerland — have cleared Serum Institute of India’s Covishield jab for Green Pass.
This means those inoculated with the Covishield vaccine will be exempted from travel curbs in these countries. However, fate of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is yet to be decided.
The Green Pass is an immunity document meant to ease travel within and to the European Union (EU) from July 1.
However, this did not come easy for India. After EU countries put condition of making it mandatory for a quarantine period for Indians arriving in their regions despite being vaccinated with Covishield, India too decided on adopting a reciprocal policy.
On Wednesday, India had said it would recognise EU’s digital Covid certificate on a reciprocal basis and would not accept it until the EU does the same for Indian vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin.
India, which had raised the issue with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and France, had also asked EU member states to individually consider extending a similar exemption to those who have had Covishield and Covaxin jabs.
Currently, the EMA, the EU’s top medical body had approved only four vaccines so far — Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty, US pharma giant Moderna’s Covid vaccine, the AstraZeneca shot manufactured and sold in Europe as Vaxzervria, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. Only those who have been given these shots were granted vaccination passports and allowed to travel hassle-free amid the pandemic.
Besides Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin was also not on the EMA list. The EU does, however, also said that “member states may decide to extend this (the certificate) also to EU travellers that received another vaccine”.
Under these rules, Indians — vaccinated with Covishield or Covaxin — were to be subjected to a mandatory quarantine if they travel to the EU nations, unless these vaccines are cleared by the respective countries.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday had also brought the issue when he met Josep Borrell Fontelles, a top EU official.
