Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India on Thursday announced that there will be no requirement of quarantine for Indian travellers to UK if they are either fully vaccinated with Covishield or with another UK-approved Covid-19 jab. The rule will come into effect from October 11.
The development comes after a major controversy between India and the UK over Britain’s travel advisory, which included Covishield in its list of accepted vaccines, but still required vaccinated travellers from India to quarantine themselves for 10 days upon arrival. The UK at the time said it didn’t accept the CoWIN certificate.
UK faced strong crticism from India after the nation did not even include Covishield in its list of accepted vaccines. Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called the UK government’s decision “discriminatory" and one that impacts the travel of Indians. He had added that it is within the country’s “right to take reciprocal measures" if the matter was not resolved.
Post backlash, the UK had on September 22 revised its travel advisory to include Covishield in its list of accepted vaccines, but required Indians to quarantine and get tested on arrival as Britain didn’t accept the CoWIN certificate. Since then, both the countries were in talks to resolve the matter.
