New Zealand Recognises Covishield, Covaxin; India ‘Keenly Awaits Lifting of Travel Restrictions’

In a welcoming move, New Zealand on Wednesday said it has included India’s Covishield and Covaxin in its list of eight recognised vaccines. In a tweet, India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand Muktesh Pardeshi wrote: “In a positive decision, NZ includes #covishield and #covaxin in the list of 8 recognised vaccines. We keenly await lifting of travel restrictions. India is already open to vaccinated tourists.”

Covishield and Covaxin, both of which have received emergency use listing (EUL) from the World Health Organisation, have so far been recognised by 96 countries. The 96 nations include Canada, the US, Australia, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and Switzerland.

India on Monday allowed quarantine-free entry to fully vaccinated travellers from 99 countries, including the US, UK, UAE, Qatar, France and Germany. Although travellers from the 99 countries have been exempted from mandatory quarantine, they will be required to follow certain norms that remain the same for all travellers.

The 99 nations are included in the ‘Category A’ list mentioned in the notification by the central government. The United States, Great Britain, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Bangladesh, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and Nepal are some of the countries that feature in the list.

India shares an agreement with some of the 99 nations on ‘mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates’ of nationally recognised or the WHO-recognised vaccines.

Some of the countries, which feature in the ‘Category A’ list, do not have mutual recognition of the Covid-19 vaccine agreement with India, but they permit quarantine-free entry to fully vaccinated Indian nationals. Travellers from these countries have to submit a self-declaration of their fully vaccinated status on the Air Suvidha portal, and also produce a negative RT-PCR test report, not older than 72 hours.

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