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UK removes travel curbs for Indians vaccinated with Covishield

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A worker sanitises a sign at the International arrivals area of Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport. — Reuters file

A worker sanitises a sign at the International arrivals area of Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport. — Reuters file

New Delhi - British High Commissioner to India says the new rule will come to effect on October 11

Published: Thu 7 Oct 2021, 9:32 PM

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Ending a weeks-long row, the UK on Thursday announced Indian travellers fully vaccinated with Covishield can enter the country without quarantine.

In a video shared by ANI on Twitter, Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India, said that there will be no quarantine for Indian travellers fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from October 11. Covishield is the Indian version of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

He said the decision would help students, business persons and tourists from both the countries as it would result in an increase in the number of flights between India and the UK.

Earlier, the UK government introduced new travel rules from October 4, which made it mandatory for a 10-day quarantine and RT-PCR test even for fully vaccinated Indians travelling to the UK. Enraged by the move, India in retaliation has imposed reciprocal measures for UK citizens travelling to India since October 4.

Earlier on Thursday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India had taken up the issue with UK authorities at various levels but without success. India had called the UK rules ‘discriminatory’.

A British High Commission spokesperson had said: “The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the Government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.

“The UK is open to travel and we are already seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK, be it tourists, business people or students. Over 62,500 student visas have been issued in the year ending June 2021, which is an increase of almost 30 per cent as compared to the previous year. We want to make the process of travelling as easy as possible.”

(With inputs from ANI)



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