India’s vaccination prowess has got a major boost after the United Kingdom included Bharat Biotech’s `Covaxin’ on its approved vaccine list.
This means those inoculated with the Covaxin will not have to self-isolate after arrival in England.
In October, the UK had added India’s Covishield, the India-manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on its approved list.
The approval comes after World Health Organization (WHO) issued an emergency-use listing for Covaxin on November 3. Apart from Covaxin, the UK government has also added China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm to its approved list of Coronavirus vaccines.
Earlier this month, British High Commissioner Alex Ellis had tweeted that the UK would recognize Covaxin as a valid Covid-19 vaccine for travel from November 22.
“More good news for Indian travelers to Great Britain. From 22 November travelers fully vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine recognized by the WHO for Emergency Use Listing, including Covaxin, will not have to self-isolate; so joining those fully vaccinated with Covishield,” he said.
Covaxin and Covishield were the first two jabs to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for the nationwide inoculation drive, which commenced on January 16.
The former has been developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited and is the first made-in-India anti-Covid shot. The latter is the Indian variant of Britain’s AstraZeneca vaccine and manufactured locally by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII).
The country has also approved Russia-made Sputnik and Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine.
On October 11, the UK had started accepting India’s vaccine certificates ending a travel row that had resulted in UK nationals facing mandatory 10-day quarantine on arrival even if they were fully vaccinated.