UK's New Covid Travel Rules Stir Controversy, Jaishankar Urges For 'Early Resolution'

As per the new Covid-related travel rules in the United Kingdom, even if Indians have taken both the dose of Covid vaccine they will not be considered vaccinated and will undergo 10 days of isolation.

Passengers are escorted through the arrivals area of terminal 5 towards coaches destined for quarantine hotels, after landing at Heathrow airport in London (Getty Images)

New Delhi: A controversy has erupted after the UK announced its quarantine rules for passengers travelling from other countries including India. As per the new Covid-related travel rules in the United Kingdom, even if Indians have taken both the dose of Covid vaccine they will not be considered vaccinated in the country and will have to undergo 10 days of quarantine.

While it has relaxed the rules for those vaccinated with two doses Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the same version of the vaccine being manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute of India has been kept out of the list.

The latest changes, announced on Friday, mandate that only people who have got both shots of a double-dose vaccine such as Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or the single shot Janssen vaccine “under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.

UK's travel rules had divided countries into three different categories — Green, Amber, and Red. India came under the Amber category.

According to the new change in rules, there will be only one category — Red, and simplified travel rules from other countries. The rules will depend on the vaccination status of individuals travelling to the UK.

The UK Government website said, "From 4am Monday 4 October 2021, the rules for international travel to England will change from the red, amber, green traffic light system to a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the red list will depend on your vaccination status."

Jaishankar Urges UK to provide 'early resolution' of quarantine issue

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar urged for an "early resolution" of the COVID-19 quarantine issue during his meeting with the newly appointed British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss. The meeting in New York between Jaishankar and Truss came the same day as the UK announced new COVID-related travel restrictions that sparked sharp criticism and concerns in India.

Jaishankar arrived in New York on Monday to participate in the high-level 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

Congress leaders raise questions on quarantine rules

After the UK released its travel guidelines, Senior Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh raised questions over against the UK government’s decision to consider people vaccinated in India as non-vaccinated and the mandatory 10-day quarantine rule.

Taking to Twitter, Tharoor said that due to the new rules he has pulled out of a debate at Cambridge Union and withdrawn from the events for the launch of the UK edition of his book “The Battle of Belonging”.

Quoting a thread of tweets by UK news analyst Alex Macheras, Tharoor wrote: “Because of this I have pulled out of a debate at the @cambridgeunion & 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!”

Rajya Sabha Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that the country’s new travel regulations have a "smack of racism". Tweeting on the same conversation thread Ramesh said, “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.”

The scrapping of an amber list, which is what India is currently on could have reduced the cost burden for Indian travellers but 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 required to undergo a pre-departure PCR test and further tests on landing in the UK.

(With PTI inputs)