UK calls for India vaccine acceptance in travel schemes

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday said he saw no reason why people who received Indian-made AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines should be left out of vaccine passport schemes after the European Union did not initially recognise it.About 5mn people in Britain are thought to have had the vaccine made by Serum Institute in India, known as Covishield.“I see no reason at all why the MHRA-approved vaccines should not be recognised as part of the vaccine passports and I’m very confident that that will not prove to be a problem,” Johnson said at a joint news conference with Angela Merkel, referring to Britain’s medicines regulator.Meanwhile, the European Commission yesterday said  it is looking at ways to agree a co-ordinated approach to accepting the Indian version of AstraZeneca’s shot, Covishield, across the European Union but will need some time.The commission reiterated that the jab, which has been given to millions of Britons, is not yet approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or recognised under the EU’s new vaccine passport scheme to travel freely within the bloc from July 1. “I don’t think you can say that it won’t be possible to come to the EU with this vaccine,” a spokesperson for the EU executive told a regular briefing.“In order to ensure a co-ordinated approach, the commission is in discussion with the member states to see which is the best approach to follow,” a second spokesperson said.The EU vaccine passport programme allows people to travel freely within the bloc as long as they have had one of four Western-made vaccines.While this includes the AstraZeneca shot, it does not extend to Covishield, the Indian version of the vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India (SII).In addition to the AstraZeneca shot, the other EU-recognised vaccines are those made by Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson.Britain, no longer a member of the EU, urged the commission and the bloc’s 27 states to seek a swift solution.EU countries that depend on tourism, such as Greece, are also eager to see the return of British holidaymakers.“Our priority is to ensure safe and open, travel, and we will work with the European Commission on mutual recognition of certification,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters.“I would say that all AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product, and they have been subject to rigorous safety and quality checks,” the spokesperson said.”Meanwhile, India’s official death toll from the coronavirus topped 400,000 yesterday, though experts say the actual number of dead could have reached 1mn or even higher, with a possible third wave of infections looming.India added 100,000 deaths in 39 days, a Reuters tally showed, as a brutal second wave of infections swept across cities and into the vast countryside where millions remain vulnerable without a single shot of vaccines.Overnight, the country recorded 853 deaths, taking the toll past the 400,000 mark, according to data from health ministry. India’s death toll is the third-highest globally. “Undercounting of deaths is something that has happened across states, mostly because of lags in the system, so that means we will never have a true idea of how many people we lost in this second wave,” said Rijo M John, a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.While still elevated, the number of new infections has eased to two-month lows since hitting a peak of 400,000 a day in May.