India reaches out to EU member countries for exemption on India-made vaccines
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Listing of these two vaccines ensures that anyone who is inoculated by them can be exempted under the EU green pass, also known as European Union (EU) Digital Covid Certificate that comes into effect from today
India has reached out to member countries of the European Union, urging to list domestically-made coronavirus vaccines--Covaxin and Covishield on the national travel lists formed in the backdrop of the Covid crisis.
Listing of these two vaccines ensures that anyone who is inoculated by them can be exempted under the EU green pass, also known as European Union (EU) Digital Covid Certificate that comes into effect from today.
New Delhi has also urged the EU member counties to accept the vaccination certificate issued through India's CoWIN portal. The CoWIN portal is a digital platform India is using as part of its vaccination drive against the Covid.
In a quid pro quo gesture, the offer includes "reciprocal recognition" of EU green pass if EU states agree with the above two proposals. This, in effect, means that travelers from the EU countries carrying the EU Digital Covid Certificate will be exempted from mandatory quarantine. Many EU Member states like Ireland have given approval to Covishield for its national travel list.
The EU green pass uses the European Medicines Agency (EMA) list of approved vaccines. EMA, which gives commercial authorisation lists only 4 vaccines, none of them are India-made vaccines. But each member state has been given the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorized at the national level or by the World Health Organization. WHO has given approval to 8 vaccines, which include Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
"The EU Digital covid certificate is meant to facilitate safe movement during the COVID-19 pandemic within the European Union. It will serve as proof that the person was vaccinated against covid 19 or received a negative result or recovered from COVID", European Union's envoy to India Ugo Astuto told WION earlier this week.
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had met his European counterpart Josep Borrell on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' meet in Italy had raised the matter of Covishield's authorization. Earlier the matter has been raised with the EMA as well.
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