Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are among the countries allowing travel by people who have taken Covishield vaccines, the sources said.
Tag: EU green pass
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Consider Covishield, Covaxin vaccines under Green pass scheme to avoid mandatory quarantine: India tells EU nations
By PTI
NEW DELHI: As the European Union relaxes travel restrictions under its ‘Green Pass’ scheme, India has asked the members of the 27-nation grouping to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken Covishield and Covaxin vaccines and want to travel to Europe, sources said.India has also conveyed to the EU member states that it will adopt a policy of reciprocity and exempt European nationals holding the ‘Green Pass’ from mandatory quarantine in the country provided its request to recognise Covishield and Covaxin vaccines is heeded to, they said.
The sources said India has requested the EU member nations to accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal.
The European Union’s Digital COVID certificate or “Green Pass” will be rolled out on Thursday with an aim to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic is to come into effect on Thursday.
ALSO READ | Confident of getting EMA’s approval in a month for Covishield: Adar Poonawalla
Under this framework, persons who have taken vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU region.
The individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or those recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“We have requested EU member states to individually consider extending similar exemption to those persons who have taken COVID-19 vaccines in India, that is Covishield and Covaxin, and accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal,” said a source.
The sources said the genuineness of such vaccination certification can be authenticated on the CoWIN portal.
“We have also conveyed to EU member states that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate,” the source said.
“Upon notification of Covishield and Covaxin for inclusion in the EU Digital Covid Certificate and recognition of Indian CoWIN vaccination certificates, Indian health authorities would reciprocally exempt the EU member state concerned for exemption from the mandatory quarantine of all those persons carrying EU digital COVID certificate,” the source said.
There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its ‘Green Pass’ scheme.
The EU Digital COVID certificate or ‘Green Pass’ will be mandatory to travel to European countries and the document will serve as proof that a person is vaccinated against COVID-19.
An EU official on Tuesday said individual member states of the European Union will have the option to accept vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) like Covishield for obtaining the bloc’s digital COVID certificate.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday took up the issue of inclusion of Covishield in the EU digital Covid certificate scheme during a meeting with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Italy.
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India requests EU member states to consider Covishield, Covaxin vaccines under Green passport scheme
By PTI
NEW DELHI: As the European Union relaxes travel restrictions under its ‘Green Passport’ scheme, India has requested the members of the 27-nation grouping to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to travel to Europe, sources said.The sources said India has requested the EU member nations to accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal.
The European Union’s Digital COVID certificate framework to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic is to come into effect on Thursday.
Under this framework, persons who have taken vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU.
The individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or by the World Health Organisation.
ALSO READ | Confident of getting EMA’s approval in a month for Covishield: Adar Poonawalla
“We have requested EU member states to individually consider extending similar exemption to those persons who have taken COVID-19 vaccines in India, that is Covishield and Covaxin, and accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal,” said a source.
The sources said the genuineness of such vaccination certification can be authenticated on the CoWIN portal.
“We have also conveyed to EU member states that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate,” the source said.
“Upon notification of Covishield and Covaxin for inclusion in the EU Digital Covid Certificate and recognition of Indian CoWIN vaccination certificates, Indian health authorities would reciprocally exempt the EU member state concerned for exemption from the mandatory quarantine of all those persons carrying EU digital COVID certificate,” the source said.
There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its ‘Green Pass’ scheme.
The EU Digital COVID certificate or ‘Green Pass’ will be mandatory to travel to European countries and the document will serve as proof that a person is vaccinated against COVID-19.
An EU official on Tuesday said individual member states of the European Union will have the option to accept vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) like Covishield for obtaining the bloc’s digital COVID certificate.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday took up the issue of inclusion of Covishield in the EU digital Covid certificate scheme during a meeting with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Italy.
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Confident of getting EMA’s approval in a month for Covishield: Adar Poonawalla
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Vaccine major Serum Institute of India is confident of receiving approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield in a month, company’s chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla said on Wednesday.He also said the issue of vaccine passports should be on the basis of reciprocity between the countries.
“The EMA is absolutely correct in asking us to apply, which we have through AstraZeneca, our partners, a month ago, and that process has to take its time.
An approval process even with UK MHRA, WHO took its time and we have applied to the EMA,” Poonawalla said at India Global Forum 2021.
“We are quite confident that in a month EMA will approve Covishield. There is no reason why not to, because it is based on AstraZeneca data and our product is identical to AstraZeneca more or less and it has been approved by WHO, UK MHRA. So it’s just a matter of time. It is not really going to hinder anything,” he added.
ALSO READ | EU nations will have option to accept WHO authorised jabs like Covishield to issue green pass: Official
But the reason why it was flagged is because if the issue is not addressed now, and when India gets off the red list and when citizens want to travel they should not be refused in a given country just because they have a Covishield certificate.
On the issue of vaccine passports, Poonawalla said that it was a slightly different issue.
“The issue with vaccine passports is slightly different.
What I am trying to say is that let us take a manufacturer outside of India.
Let’s say they have been approved by WHO and everyone in that country gets vaccinated taking that product and now when those citizens need to travel, what good is their vaccine certificate if it is not acknowledged and reciprocity is not there between the countries,” Poonawalla said.
It is that level of reciprocity that is expected between all these nations, he added.
On the issue of waiving of intellectual property rights on vaccines to increase the supply, Poonawalla said waiving of IP is perhaps not going to solve the immediate shortage of vaccines.
However, it is a good strategy in the long term, to be prepared for future pandemics.
Stating that it was difficult for the company to stop the export of Covishield as it had prior commitments, he however said Serum did it in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic hitting India.
Decision of stopping the exports was particularly stressful, “because it was not just our partner AstraZeneca that needed vaccines for the other parts of the world, it was COVAX, it was other countries that we had commitments with, we had taken advance funding, we had to return some of that funding, and really explain to other world leaders as well that there was really no choice at that moment ,” Poonawalla said.
We had to tell them that ,”we really had to support our nation at that moment for a few months and that we would get back to them,” he added.
It was really difficult for everyone to digest that , but slowly as they realised what was going on in India everyone was really supportive and understanding, Poonawalla said.
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EU’s denial to include Covishield in ‘green pass’ discriminatory: Experts
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A move by the European Union to deny a “green pass” to the recipients of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India for travel to EU countries has been termed “discriminatory” by scientists and experts in India.There is practically no difference between the Covid vaccines made by AstraZeneca, the original licence holder of the vaccine, and Covishield, they pointed out.
Europe’s new ‘vaccine passport’ programme, which recognises a few vaccines whose recipients will be able to travel in and out of Europe with fewer roadblocks than others, includes the AstraZeneca vaccine, called Vaxzevria outside India but not India’s Covishield.
The Covid19 vaccine by Oxford University-AstraZeneca is produced mainly by three companies, SII, SK Biosciences in South Korea and AstraZeneca’s four manufacturing units.
This vaccine is made from a virus — ChAdOx1 — a weakened version of a common cold virus, adenovirus while the spike glycoprotein from SARS-CoV-2 has been added to it. The components, as well as the manufacturing process, are exactly the same in the case of both Covishield and Vaxzevria and it is for this reason that specialists in the country are finding EU decision unpalatable.
ALSO READ | Second Covid wave deadlier, fatalities higher in younger patients: Study
“In my view, this decision is clearly discriminatory and without any plausible explanation on why the same vaccine produced in two different countries is being treated differently,” said Chandrakant Lahariya, health systems and vaccine expert.
Senior virologist and vaccinologist Shahid Jameel, director with the Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University too said that the AstraZeneca shot and Covishield are the same vaccines, made using the same seed stock of virus and the same manufacturing process.
“The only difference is that they are made at two different locations and I really don’t know the basis for this decision,” he told The New Indian Express.
He pointed out that the US FDA inspects factories and all processes for products exported to the US market and maybe it could be the same issue based on which the EU decision would have been taken.
Virologist Gagandeep Kang, associated with the Christian Medical College, Vellore said there seemed no reason for this denial to include Covishield in the “green pass” category, except that “it is not approved for use in an EU country”.
Lahariya meanwhile questioned the basis of the concept of vaccine passport saying that allowing travellers on the basis of their vaccination status and insistence on certain vaccines were not right, particularly as access to vaccines has emerged as a major challenge for the low- and middle-income countries.
“Also, this issue is still being discussed at the international level therefore it is not appropriate to rush for a decision like this,” he said.