The United Kingdom government has announced that it will recognise all Covid-19 vaccines that are on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing, including Covaxin, from 4 am on November 22.
This will mean that people who have been fully vaccinated with Covaxin will not have to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test, self-isolate on arrival in the United Kingdom, or need to take a test on the eighth day of their arrival.
The travellers will only need to pay for a lateral flow test for Covid-19 before the end of their second day of arrival.
Lateral flow tests involve taking samples from the nose and throat, and the results become clear in 15 to 30 minutes.
British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis said that the development came as good news for Indian travellers to the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the announcements “mark the next step in our restart of international travel” as the country continues to recover from the pandemic.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said that the move is “another step forward for the travel industry, businesses and for family and friends wanting to reunite or go abroad”.
From November 22, all children below 18 years of age will be treated as fully vaccinated at the border. They will not have to get themselves tested before departure, self-isolate on arrival, or undergo a test on the eighth day of arrival.
Children will only have to take one post-arrival test and a free confirmatory PCR test if their result is positive.
The United Kingdom had included the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield to its list of approved coronavirus vaccines from October 4. It announced the decision on September 22, a day after India warned about “reciprocal action” against the UK’s earlier travel guidelines.
The earlier guidelines, issued on September 17, had stated that people inoculated against the coronavirus in Africa and South America, and in some other countries, including India, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand and Russia will be considered unvaccinated.
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