The lack of an EU licence for Covishield - the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India - is leading to travellers from the UK, India and African being technically classed as "unvaccinated" under French travel rules.
The AstraZeneca vaccine technically has two names – Vaxzevria which is produced in Europe and Covishield which is produced under licence by the Serum Institute in India.
It’s produced to the same specifications using the same ingredients, but Covishield doesn’t have a sales licence in the EU. This means that travellers from India and Africa vaccinated with it cannot use vaccine certificates for entry to the EU. This is also a problem for some British travellers since the UK’s vaccine programme has used large amounts of the Indian-produced AstraZeneca product.
Speaking to us, Sanam Arora, Chairperson NISAU UK said, “There has been quite some confusion and anxiety in students around this especially those who had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India in the hope that this will be of benefit in the context of international travel. We've received many queries from students on this and on related issues such as quarantine. The good thing is once in the UK students can be vaccinated but for those who've already been vaccinated or have had one dose, there isn't much clarity. We're asking students to consult their GPs and the NHS.”
Commenting on this issue, Madan Raj told the newsweekly, “I got vaccinated with AstraZeneca in May and I was not given any choice and would have avoided AstraZeneca if I knew it would have future implications. For whatever such reasons maybe. You cannot have 5mn folks vaccinated and tell them we don’t have the right approvals in place.”
Arrivals from the UK who are fully vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria product are not affected by this.
Meanwhile, an online petition has been started which demands that fully vaccinated people coming from different countries must be allowed to quarantine at home. The petition reads: Allow fully vaccinated people who come from red-listed countries to isolate at home instead of the hotel quarantine which is very expensive and non-affordable. People need to go to see their families. Doctors who work for the whole year need to see their parents. The petitioner wrote, "The hotel quarantine is very expensive and non-affordable. I believe that there should be an exemption for fully vaccinated people and who had a negative PCR to isolate at their place of residence." If this petitions hits 100,000 signatures, it'll be considered for debate at the UK Parliament.
