New Delhi, India – The Economic Times reported on Thursday that eight European countries have included Indian manufactured Covishield vaccine in their list of approved vaccines.
This comes at a time when India and European Union (EU) are having tense negotiations over including Indian vaccines in the EU Green Pass.
A source from India’s External Affairs Ministry told BBC that digital vaccine certificates will become the norm in international travel when borders open and said that India is willing to accept each other’s certificates reciprocally.
Why are you [EU] discriminating against our certification?
India’s External Affairs Ministry Official
The EU Green Pass which will be compulsory for travel to the EU starting today, July 1, will exempt those fully vaccinated with two doses from mandatory quarantine.
The CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla, meanwhile, said that the Covishield vaccine is more or less identical to AstraZeneca and since AstraZeneca is already approved for Green Pass, Covishield will be approved by EMA within a month.
A large majority of Maldivians have received Covishield vaccinations with 228,653 people vaccinated with the vaccine. Statistics from June 1 reveal that 117,737 people are fully vaccinated with a second dose of Covishield while more than 109,737 are waiting for the second dose.
With India imposing a ban on all vaccine exports, Maldives is currently waiting for vaccine doses procured from AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical company in Singapore. The AstraZeneca vaccine can be interchangeable with Covishield vaccine and can be given as a second dose to those who received Covishield as a first dose. The island nation is expecting to receive AstraZeneca doses from Singapore mid-July.
