Britain's decision on Covishield discriminatory, we will take similar action: Shringla

New Delhi, Dt

The British government's decision not to "recognize" Covishield, India's anti-coronary vaccine, is discriminatory and the government has warned Britain that it will take similar action against Britain if the dispute is not resolved soon. Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Sringala said the British government's decision on Covishield would affect Indians traveling to England.

The foreign secretary said the decision not to recognize the anti-Coro vaccine Covishield was a discriminatory policy and affected Indian nationals traveling to Britain. External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar has raised the issue with Britain's new Foreign Minister. India has been assured that the issue will be resolved soon.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar tweeted that he had discussed the issue with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss during the 9th high-level session of the UN General Assembly. Britain is urged to resolve the quarantine issue as soon as possible in mutual interests. Earlier, Britain said it was in talks with India to extend the acceptance of anti-coronary vaccination certificates issued by Indian authorities. Amid criticism of Britain's new rules on the corona vaccine issue, a British embassy spokesman said Britain was in talks with India on the issue and was committed to reopening international travel as soon as possible.

The foreign ministers of the two countries met after strong criticism of Britain's new travel rules in India over the corona vaccine. According to Britain's new rules for foreigners, even people who have taken both doses of Covishield, an anti-coronary vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India, will be treated as having not been vaccinated and will have to remain in self-isolation for 10 days.

The Covishield vaccine has been developed by researchers at Oxford University and giant pharma company AstraZeneca and is being manufactured in India by the Serum Institute. Covishield and covacin vaccines are being used in a nationwide vaccination campaign in India. The covshield vaccine is internationally recognized while the covacin is not yet recognized by the World Health Organization.