Latvia and Finland on Friday joined the Netherlands to become the latest countries in the European Union (EU) to approve the Serum Institute of India (SII)-made Covishield vaccine for travellers, a few days after India made a concerted appeal for the approval of its Covid-19 vaccines in Europe.
As of now, apart from the three countries above, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Estonia, Spain and Switzerland have given their approval to Covishield for travel entry.
The website of the Netherlands’ government states that Covishield has been included in the list of vaccines that have been approved along with those from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
People who have been vaccinated with both the doses are exempted from the EU entry ban unless they are travelling from a country which has been designated as ‘very high-risk region’ if there is the presence of any ‘variant of concern’.
The nine EU countries had earlier on Thursday allowed the SII-Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine just a day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took up the matter of ban with the European Union.
Estonia has confirmed that it will recognise all vaccines of India for the travel of Indians to the country.
India had individually requested member states of the EU to consider extending the exemption on people who have taken the Indian jabs of Covishield and Covaxin, and also said that it will form a reciprocal policy for the recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate.
“We have requested EU member states to individually consider extending similar exemption to those persons who have taken COVID-19 vaccines in India i.e. Covishield and Covaxin, and accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal. The genuineness of such vaccination certification can be authenticated on the CoWIN portal,” sources said, according to news agency ANI.
