On the day the EU pass was launched without Covishield, India threatened retaliatory action, with a government source telling the BBC that Delhi would “institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU digital Covid certificate” if India-produced vaccines were not added to EU travel passes. Now a full-blown diplomatic crisis is unfolding. Indian journalist Barkha Dutt called the perceived vaccine snub “ ugly racism”. The news has triggered accusations that the EU is again raising the barriers of “Fortress Europe” against the rest of the world. Last month, according to east Africa-based travellers I have spoken with, the French embassy in Nairobi informed potential travellers that “for now the Covishield vaccine, even though it is produced under AstraZeneca licence, is not recognised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and France at the moment”. Travellers to the EU living in countries distributing Covishield have been receiving conflicting information: on the one hand being reassured by governments that the vaccine they are receiving is safe and globally recognised and on the other being rebuffed by EU embassies that robotically inform them their vaccination status may not be valid for travel. What’s bizarre is that Covishield is merely an India-produced version of the AstraZeneca vaccine so, naturally, it was widely assumed that it would be given the same recognition in terms of travel and health status.
Covishield is approved by the World Health Organization and has been described as the backbone of the vaccination effort across Africa and in low- and middle-income countries. These are the residents of many non-European countries across the world who have received the Indian-manufactured vaccine, branded as Covishield, which has not been included in the EU pass. What isn’t in the headlines as much is that millions of other potential travellers have been in this situation for much longer, and are yet to receive any sort of clarity or reassurance. It was just “an administrative hurdle” that should be “straightened out”, a member of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told the BBC. However, the odds are that UK citizens will probably be fine and their travel to Europe will proceed unhindered: the prime minister himself said he was “confident” that there “will not be a problem” for travellers. Hence headlines over the weekend about “travel bans” and Europe being “off limits” to some British travellers. The certificate allows a vaccinated person to travel, without the need for quarantine or further testing, between the EU’s 27 countries (and four associated European nations).
That vaccine has not been approved by the European Commission for its new digital Covid certificate, which went live last week. If you are in the UK and have received the AstraZeneca jab, you may have been checking your batch number in the past few days to see if you were one of the 5 million Britons who received a version of the vaccine manufactured in India.
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