NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (NNN-PTI) – The Indian government described Britain’s decision, not to recognise Covishield as a legitimate anti-COVID-19 vaccine, as “discriminatory” and warned of reciprocal measures, if the matter was not resolved.
India’s Foreign Secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla said, during a media briefing that, the country supplied five million Covishield doses to Britain, at the request of the British government, describing the non-recognition of the vaccine as a “discriminating policy.”
“The external affairs minister raised the issue strongly with the new U.K. foreign secretary. If he doesn’t get satisfaction, we would be within our rights to impose reciprocal measures,” he said.
India is not included in the list of countries, whose vaccines are recognised by Britain.
Shringla said, Britain’s move impacts Indian citizens travelling to that country.
Indian travellers, who received the required two doses of the Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days on arrival in Britain, with compulsory polymerase chain reaction tests.
Covishield, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and pharma giant, AstraZeneca, is one of the two vaccines deployed by India.
