India on Friday decided to impose reciprocal Covid-19 restrictions on UK nationals arriving in the country.
After India hinted that it might retaliate, the UK accepted Covishield; but it still did not change the testing and quarantine rules. Changing the goal post, British officials said last week that the issue was not the vaccine itself but certification.
The CEO of India's National Health Authority responded by saying that certification after vaccination in India is a centralised national system managed through the CoWIN app and there are "no issues" with the platform which is entirely compliant with World Health Organisation standards.
Described as discriminatory and even colonialist, the UK government has faced intense backlash over its refusal to recognise visitors as vaccinated unless they have received their shots in a handful of select countries.
