No Vaccine Passport For Covishield Administered Travellers, EMA Yet To List Oxford Vaccine For EU

Travellers vaccinated with Covishield may not be eligible for the European Union’s ‘Green Pass’ that will be available for use from July 1.

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New Delhi: India has been vaccinating people in a massive inoculation drive which is spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent the country from witnessing the third wave of Coronavirus. Currently, people in India are being inoculated with Covishield and Covaxin. The states and central government also made arrangements to vaccinate people who will be traveling abroad in the coming weeks but those travellers may not get their 'digital vaccine passport'.

Travellers vaccinated with Covishield, manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), may not be eligible for the European Union ‘Green Pass’. This pass will be available for use from July 1.

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.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved only four Covid-19 vaccines so far: Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Moderna, Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca), Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

However, Covishield which is the Indian version of AstraZeneca and University of Oxford's Covid vaccine has not been recognised by the EMA for the European market.

Even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has endorsed SII's Covishield for emergency use across the world, the EU's ‘Green Pass’ program only recognises EMA-approved vaccines.

While the European Union had earlier said that member states should issue the certificates regardless of the type of Covid-19 vaccine, the technical specifications of the ‘Green Pass’ indicate that obligation would be limited to “vaccines that have received EU-wide marketing authorization.”

(with agency inputs)