Travellers vaccinated with Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufactured in India, may not be eligible for the European Union’s “Green Pass” that will be available for use from July 1.
Green Pass is an immunity document that is meant to ease travel within and to the bloc, according to reports citing official rules. Many EU member states have started issuing the digital “vaccine passport” that will enable Europeans to move freely for work or tourism. The immunity passport will serve as proof that a person has been vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), or recently tested negative for the virus, or has the natural immunity built up from earlier infection.
At present, four vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that can be used by the EU member states to issue the certificates. These are Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Moderna, Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca-Oxford), Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).
Vaxzevria and Covishield are both the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines. While the India-made Covishield has not been recognised by the EMA yet, the Vaxzevria version of the Astrazeneca shot produced and manufactured in the UK or other sites around Europe is approved, the reports said.
Some of the EU member states, however, can amend the rules to allow entry to individuals vaccinated with non-EMA approved jabs. Iceland has decided to permit the entry of those vaccinated with any of the jabs approved by both EMA and World Health Organisation (WHO), which includes Covishield.
WHO has given an emergency nod to eight COVID-19 vaccines so far, including AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and the corresponding ‘versions’ of Serum Institute and S.K. Biosciences. India’s other major COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, has been approved neither by the WHO nor the EMA.
Several EU countries have already begun using the system, including Spain, Germany, Greece, and Poland. The rest are expected to start using it July 1.
On other hand, France has clarified that it would facilitate easy entry for only those vaccinated with EMA-approved vaccines, and not with the vaccines manufactured in India and Russia.
Notably, India’s Covishield and Russia’s Sputnik V is being used for mass immunisation drives not only in the two countries, but also in an array of low-income nations which have received both the vaccines under WHO’s COVAX distribution network.
