15 European nations accept Covishield

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 9

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Fifteen countries in the EU now recognise Covishield for travelers, former diplomat Syed Akbaruddin posted on his Twitter account.

These countries are Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Lithuania, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia, he said in his tweet.

However three major nations, France, Poland and Italy, have still not accepted Covishield.

 India, the 54-country African Union and many countries in the Middle East that inoculated its citizens with Covishield—the AstraZeneca variant made by Serum Institute of India (SII) —have spoken out against the EU ignoring WHO-approved vaccines on its Digital Covid Certificate that will allow movements within the bloc. Over 90 per cent of vaccine doses administered in Africa so far are Covishield.

However, individual countries are given flexibility and this is what the 15 countries have exercised. Four vaccines are currently approved for use in the EU: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Another four are under “rolling review” for possible approval: Russia’s Sputnik, China’s Sinovac, Germany’s CureVac and Novavax of the US.

The 15 countries have utilised a caveat that says, “Member states can, however, issue the certificate even to those who have been vaccinated with other vaccines if they are willing to do so”.

Only 10 out of 31 EU/EFTA nations have fully followed the WHO guidelines by recognising all eight vaccines that have been granted a WHO Emergency Use Listing as valid for entry by tourists and other non-essential travelers. SII’s AstraZeneca, called Covishield, is among them. They are Finland, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Hungary, Spain, Sweden , as well as Iceland and Switzerland.

Until last week, nine EUEFTA countries had decided to accept Covishield as and when they opened their borders to citizens of countries hit by deadly Covid variants.  These countries were Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and Estonia.