Belgium has become the 15th European Nation to recognise the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine. It means that Indians vaccinated with Covishield will be allowed essential travel to Belgium.
However, they will still have to undergo an RT-PCR test in Belgium. They will be exempted from quarantine following a negative report.
The Embassy of Belgium in India confirmed the news Friday. "Belgium recognises Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India and distributed by COVAX. An important decision for India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh in the fight against vaccine inequality," the embassy’s official handle tweeted.
The other 14 European nations which have recognised the Covishield vaccine are — Switzerland, Iceland, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherland, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Meanwhile, Estonia has said that it will recognise the vaccine only for Indian travellers.
Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization, also confirmed the news in a tweet saying — 15 countries in the EU now recognize Covishield for travellers.
Covishield is still out of European Union’s "Green Pass". The “green pass” is digital “vaccine passport” issued by the European Union (EU) to enable easy travel in EU countries for work and tourism.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has so far approved four vaccines -- Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Moderna, Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca), and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). Covishield was excluded even though it is derived from AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and both Vaxzevria and Covishield are qualitatively similar.
Adar Poonawalla-led SII has applied to the EMA for an emergency use approval for Covishield. The SII CEO is expecting the approval to come in a few weeks.
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