Mumbai/ Delhi: Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Monday to reassure Covishield-vaccinated Indians facing issues with travel to Europe in light of the EU's new 'vaccine passport' scheme, which does not yet recognise the India-made version of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine. The SII has requested the government to take up the matter of inclusion of Covishield vaccine in the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport with the European Union and other countries. The non-inclusion of Covishield in the EU’s “Green Pass” list has affected hundreds of students and business travellers and caused severe disruptions to the Indian and global economy.
Only four vaccines -- Comirnaty of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Vaxzervria by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen -- have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Only persons inosculated by these vaccines will be given vaccination passports and will be allowed to travel within the EU during the pandemic. “India has a large population. However, not including Covishield into the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport will not allow Covishield vaccinated people to travel to European countries and this will affect students, business travellers back and forth, and cause severe disruptions to our economy and to the global economy," a source quoted Adar C Poonawalla, CEO of SII, as having communicated in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Sources said referring to Poonawalla's letter, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, Prakash Kumar Singh, has also sought Jaishankar's intervention at the highest level, saying, "It will be in the national interest as well as in the interest of people at large globally if Covishield vaccine is included in the EU COVID-19 Vaccination Passport."
Poonawalla in his letter has mentioned that nearly 30 crore people have already been vaccinated with Covishield in India. More than 50% of the Indian population will be protected with the Covishield vaccine finally.
The letter also mentions that AstraZeneca-SII Covishield has been manufactured under technology transfer from Oxford/AstraZeneca and that clinical trials of the vaccine have been conducted successfully abroad and has been approved by MHRA for emergency use approval.
