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The Financial Express

Some European countries to allow travellers from India inoculated with Serum-made Covishield

| Updated: July 03, 2021 10:13:11


Reuters file photo Reuters file photo

Germany and Spain are among nine countries in Europe who have told India they will accept travellers inoculated with Covishield, the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, Indian foreign ministry sources said on Thursday.

Friction emerged between India and Europe in recent days over the exclusion by the European Union vaccine passport programme of Covishield as one of its accepted vaccines.

From Thursday, the programme allows anyone who is fully vaccinated with any of five Western-made vaccines - Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca - travel freely within the bloc.

The exclusion of Covishield, which is produced by India's Serum Institute using analogous methods to the EU-approved AstraZeneca vaccine Vaxzevria but does not have EU market authorisation, stoked anger and the treat of retaliatory measures by India against travellers from Europe.

An Indian foreign ministry source said on Thursday that Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland had informed the Indian government that Covishield would be accepted for the purposes of travel.

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