India said it will take reciprocal action against Britain if London does not rescind its “discriminatory” advice treating travelers to India as ‘undesirable’ even though they have received both doses of AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine, and have been given 10 Insisted on quarantining for days. Sources have said.
UK travel guidelines
“If the quarantine issue is not negotiated with the UK and CoveShield does not get due recognition, India will have to do the same thing for UK travellers. They will be compulsorily quarantined on their arrival in India, irrespective of their vaccination status,” said a source tracking the matter. business Line.
According to new COVID travel guidelines issued by the UK on Friday, only people who have received the shot under an approved immunization program in the UK, Europe, US or UK overseas vaccine program will be considered fully immunised. Vaccines under this program include Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna and Janssen.
Anger in India over Britain’s new wax rule
India is upset that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been recognized by the UK, but its version manufactured by the Serum Institute in India has been excluded.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised the issue with UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss at a meeting in New York on Monday. “In mutual interest urged for early resolution of the quarantine issue,” Jaishankar tweeted. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India would be within its rights to take reciprocal measures if the matter was not resolved satisfactorily.
“I am told that some assurances have been given that the issue will be resolved,” Shringla said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
‘discriminatory’
Shringla said the UK travel advisory was definitely discriminatory as it refused to recognize Covishield, a licensed product of a UK-based company manufactured in India. India has also supplied 5 million doses of Covishield to the UK at the request of the government.
The UK’s new quarantine rules are likely to affect students returning to British universities as well as professionals traveling for businesses and work.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor criticized the UK government for adopting “double standards” and said he had pulled out of a debate in the UK from Cambridge University and some book release events because he had the option of sitting in quarantine for ten days. did not have time.
.