UK nationals visiting India this month will have to undergo mandatory quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in retaliation for UK curbs on Indian citizens, a senior government source in New Delhi said yesterday.
The new rules, which take effect from Monday, follow the UK decision to require Indians vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s Covishield to quarantine.
According to the new laws all British arrivals, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake RT-PRC test within 72 hours before travel, another test on arrival in India and the third one eight days later. They will also have to quarantine at home or at their destination address for 10 days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters.
India mainly relies on the Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute, which is not recognised by Britain under new rules, despite being identical to the doses given to millions of Britons.
AstraZeneca is one of the key providers to Britain’s vaccination programme, along with US peers Moderna and Pfizer.
Others have received Covaxin, a vaccine produced by an Indian company that is not used in Britain.
Government sources in New Delhi had last month warned of retaliation after Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he had urged for an early resolution after a meeting with his British counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The India government was irked that while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been recognised by Britain, its version produced by Serum Institute of India has been excluded.
India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, said earlier this week that it will resume exports and donations of surplus coronavirus vaccines in October after a months-long freeze because of the massive surge in domestic infections.
The Serum Institute of India, which produces the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, will resume small exports via the global vaccine-sharing platform Covax this month and raise it substantially by January, its head told The Telegraph newspaper
“Our exports to Covax will recommence again in October, initially these supplies will be small but by January 2022, once we have satisfied domestic demands - people forget that India is still a lower-middle income country - we will see large volumes go to Covax,” chief executive Adar Poonawalla said
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson administration’s refusal to recognise India-made doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is causing “total chaos”, Poonawalla said.
(Representative photo)
