New Delhi: Ending the brewing row over vaccination certification, the UK has announced that from Monday, October 11, Indian travellers to Britain double-jabbed with Covishield do not have to quarantine on arrival.
UK High Commissioner Alex Ellis in a tweet said: “No quarantine for Indian travellers to UK fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from 11 October. Thanks to Indian government for close cooperation over last month.”
“This is great news. We have been actually open to Indian travellers for months, we’ve been issuing thousands of visas to students, business travellers, to tourists, and it’s the product of excellent discussions with the Indian authorities.”
“Some of the noise about this issue, over the last few weeks shows how keen people are to travel to the UK, and I’m delighted by that. So let’s now go further, let’s open up more flights between the two countries, let’s get British tourists able to get in to India, they are desperate to do so, let’s facilitate business travellers who are trying to come in to India with e visas.
“This is a further step down the road set by PM Modi and PM Johnson when they agreed to form the strategic partnership between our two countries in May,” he said in a video message.
A UK High Commission spokesperson said the decision “was taken after close technical cooperation between our Ministries taking public health factors into account.”
“The extension of vaccine certification is a further step to enable people to travel more freely again, in a safe and sustainable way, while protecting public health,” the spokesperson said.
The announcement comes days after India announced reciprocal measures on the UK for failing to give recognition to its CoWIN vaccination certification. From October 4, all UK nationals are being made to undergo mandatory Covid-19 RT-PCR testing as well as 10 days quarantine on arrival.
India announced the reciprocal measures after the UK gave the go-ahead to AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine but left out India from the list of approved countries for vaccine certification.
Thursday’s announcement by the UK puts an end to the rising tensions over the vaccine certification.
“From 11 October, Indian travellers who have received both doses of Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine at least 14 days before arrival in the UK can travel without having to quarantine; will not be required to take a pre-departure test nor take a day 8 test following their arrival,” the High Commission said in a travel update.
The travel update said that from 4 am Monday 11 October, 47 countries and territories will be removed from its red list, including India.
Earlier, in the evening, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said that discussions were on with the UK to resolve the vaccine certification issue.
He said the UK’s travel restrictions on Indians with valid vaccination certification was "clearly discriminatory".
"There is no second opinion about it. We had taken it up with the UK authorities so many times at various levels, but without success. That is why we have applied reciprocal measures from October 4 on all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK," he said. (UNI)
