New Delhi: Responding to the statement by the British High Commissioner over recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificate, the National Health Authority Chief Dr RS Sharma said on Wednesday that no official communication from the UK with respect to the vaccination certificate has been received from the UK.
“I haven’t received any official statement. I cannot comment on the matter until the matter is addressed through official means,” he told UNI.
The matter of contention is the approval of Covishield vaccine by the UK but not Indians who have received the COVID-19 jab.
Earlier in the day, the UK issued an updated travel advisory by including AstraZeneca’s Covishield as an approved vaccine, but it does not mention India as a country with a recognised public healthy body giving the vaccines.
The latest advisory means that Indians will have to undergo mandatory quarantine after arrival in the UK, despite being fully vaccinated.
A spokesperson of British High Commission later said that the country is “engaging with Govt of India to explore how to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”
The CoWIN platform designed by NHA issues the certificate of vaccination in India. According to to the revised travel advisory, four listed such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines in the UK.
“From 4 am Monday, 4 October, you will qualify as fully vaccinated if you are vaccinated either: * under an approved vaccination programme in the UK, Europe, USA or UK vaccine programme overseas
* with a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” the advisory read.
