New Delhi: With the United Kingdom refusing to remove quarantine rules for vaccinated Indian travellers, India on Friday, October 1, decided to impose reciprocal restrictions on UK nationals travelling to India from October 4.
Under the UK rules that are scheduled to come into effect from Monday, October 4, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India will still be considered “un-vaccinated”. Accordingly, they would have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.
Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had taken up the matter with his new British counterpart Elizabeth Truss in New York in September. After the meeting, Indian foreign secretary Harsh Shringla had told reporters that some “assurances” had been received from the UK, but indicated that India reserved the right to impose reciprocal measures if changes were not made.
Over a week later, official sources said that India “has decided to impose reciprocity on UK nationals arriving in India from the UK”.
“Our new regulations will come into effect from October 4, and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving from the UK,” they said.
As per the new Indian rules, all UK nationals, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to under take four measures:
- Pre-departure COVID-19 RT-PRC test within 72 hours before travel;
- COVID-19 RT-PCR test on arrival at airport;
- COVID-19 RT-PCR test on Day 8 after arrival; and
- Mandatory quarantine at home or the destination address for 10 days after arrival in India.
“Authorities in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Civil Aviation would be taking steps to implement the new measures,” added the sources.
Later on Friday evening, the British High Commission spokesperson, reacting to the development said the UK is continuing to talk with the Indian government on ‘technical cooperation’.
“The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the Government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India,” the British High Commission said.
The UK high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, had claimed that the issue was not with Covishield vaccine, but with the COVID-19 vaccine certification, done through the CoWIN app.
“The UK is open to travel and we’re already seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK, be it tourists, business people or students. Over 62,500 student visas have been issued in the year ending June 2021, which is an increase of almost 30% as compared to the previous year. We want to make the process of travelling as easy as possible,” the high commission also said.
The Indian foreign secretary had said publicly on September 21 that the UK policy smelled of discrimination.
“The basic issue is that here is a vaccine, Covishield, which is a licensed product of the UK company, manufactured in India of which we have supplied five million doses to the UK at the request of the government of the UK. We understand that this is being used under the national health system, and, therefore, non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy and does impact those of our citizens travelling to the UK,” Shringla had said.
From October 4, the UK’s current ‘traffic light’ system of ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ countries – based on levels of COVID-19 risk – will be replaced by a single ‘red’ list of countries.
The scrapping of an amber list, which is what India is currently on, means a reduced PCR test cost burden, but only for some travellers.
The expanded list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in the UK does not include India.
It means Indians vaccinated with Covishield, the Serum Institute of India-produced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, would be required to undergo compulsory PCR tests as well as self-isolation.
The UK rules had also drawn sharp criticism from the opposition, Congress, leaders of which had urged the government to immediately intervene and ensure that no inconvenience is faced by Indian travellers.
