The United Kingdom's Covid-19 travel rules treating Indians vaccinated with Covishield as unvaccinated has triggered a backlash with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pulling out of events related to the launch of his book and Rajya Sabha Congress Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh saying the British regulation "smacks of racism".
The UK's regulation says that a person vaccinated in Africa, or South America, or countries, including UAE, India, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand and Russia among others would be considered "unvaccinated". This would mean that such persons will have to take a pre-departure test, further PCR tests on Day 2 and Day 8 of arrival, and self-isolate at their given address for 10 days upon entry.
Ramesh tweeted, "Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and The Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism."
Read | India mulls reopening doors to foreign tourists as Covid-19 situation eases
Slamming the restrictions, Tharoor tweeted, "Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion and out of launch events for the UK edition of my book #TheBattleOfBelonging (published there as TheStruggleForIndiasSoul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing!"
From October 4, according to PTI, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of Covid-19 risk will be scrapped in the UK and replaced with one red list only.
The scrapping of an amber list, which is what India is currently on, means reduced cost burden for travellers -- especially for the Indian diaspora vaccinated in the UK -- related to compulsory PCR tests.
However, an expanded list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in England does not include India, which means that Indians vaccinated with Covishield -- the Serum Institute of India produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine -- would still be subjected to the restrictions mandatory for those unvaccinated.
This new two-tiered system in the UK is expected to stay in place till the end of the year, with a further review planned for early new year.
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