India’s secretary of state on Tuesday urged Britain to get rid of a rule requiring Indians visiting there to quarantine albeit they’re fully vaccinated.
India’s Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and made in India by Pune-based Serum Institute, isn’t recognised by Britain under new rules despite being just like the doses given to many Britons.
The rules, that inherit effect next month, have caused anger, with many Indians branding the choice as discriminatory. Britons vaccinated within the uk with an equivalent Indian-made doses aren’t required to quarantine.
They could also cause a retaliation from New Delhi , with Indian government sources saying it had been likely to require reciprocal steps if the difficulty isn’t quickly resolved.
Urged early resolution of quarantine issue in mutual interest,” secretary of state Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said during a tweet after a gathering together with his British counterpart Liz Truss in ny , where both are attending the United Nations General Assembly.
The British High Commission (embassy) in New Delhi said the uk was working with India to resolve the difficulty .
“We are engaging with the govt of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India,” a spokesperson said.
The rules, that mandate 10 days of self-isolation for travellers coming back from India, also apply to several other countries using Covishield, including most African ones.
Shashi Tharoor, an Indian opposition lawmaker and author, said on Monday he had cancelled a planned book tour of england in protest against the principles .
“It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine,” he said.
A second lawmaker, Jairam Ramesh, said the choice “smacks of racism”.
AstraZeneca is one among the key providers to Britain’s vaccination program, along side U.S. peers Moderna and Pfizer.
The AstraZeneca vaccine makes up most of the doses given to Indians so far . A smaller number have taken an indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech, which isn’t in use in Britain.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi , Editing by Angus MacSwan)
