India, UK in talks to resolve vaccination certification issue

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The government on Thursday said India believes the decision of UK’s 10-day quarantine for Indian travellers vaccinated with Covishield is discriminatory and New Delhi reserves the right to reciprocate in a similar manner, but is hoping a quick resolution would be found. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan while addressing a press conference said both the countries are engaged in a dialogue on the matter, amid a growing outcry in the country over the UK’s new travel rules.

“We believe that the dispensation that is proposed to be implemented from October 4 is a discriminatory practice. Both sides are in dialogue and we believe that a quick resolution will be found. We do reserve the right to reciprocate in a similar manner,” Bhushan said, responding to a question.

New rules discriminatory

British High Commissioner Alex Ellis on Wednesday said that there was no problem with Covishield vaccine and the main issue is the Covid-19 vaccine certification done through the CoWIN app.

After India’s strong criticism over UK’s refusal to recognise Covishield, London ammended its new guidelines to include the Indian version of the AstraZeneca vaccine in its updated international travel advisory. He also said that India and UK had an excellent technical discussion on Thursday.

“Excellent technical discussions with @rssharma3 @AyushmanNHA. Neither side raised technical concerns with each other’s certification process. An important step forward in our joint aim to facilitate travel and fully protect public health of UK and India,” he tweeted on Thursday.

UK officials on Wednesday clarified that Indian travellers vaccinated with two doses of Covishield vaccines will still have to undergo ten days of quarantine as the inclusion of vaccine will not make much of a difference.

The new rules have triggered massive criticism in India, as those who received both doses of the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India will be considered unvaccinated.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that India had warned of reciprocal measures, If the UK does not address its concerns over the new travel rules relating to Covid-19 vaccine certification and has branded them as discriminatory.

With the latest guidelines coming into effect on October 4, various UK official had said that the UK government does not have any problem with the Covishield vaccine but there are certain issues related to vaccine certification in India.