7 EU Nations, Switzerland Add Serum Institute’s Covishield in Their Green Pass List

After a lot of controversy and confusion regarding the rejection of the Indian vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield from the Green Pass in the EU states, many of the European Union nations have now added the Covishield vaccine into their list.

India requested or we can say subtly warned these EU states to add the vaccines to their list, after which many of the nations added the Covishield vaccine into their Green Passport List. These nations include Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institute’s Covishield were not included in their Green Pass list. India very subtly warned of retaliation in case their citizens inoculated with either of the local vaccines, face issues with entry into the EU nations. They should not be asked to stay in quarantine or subjected to any other restrictions, said India.

Also Read: Serum Institute Gets DCGI Nod for Sputnik V Production 

A list of vaccines under the “Green Pass” programme was issued.  Both Covaxin and Covishield are not there on the list. European Union nations were later asked to allow Indian citizens without any issues or travel restrictions. If the EU nations agree to this, India will as well help them with approval to their citizens, but in case they fail to approve, India will also treat EU citizens in the same way.

Even if the European nations’ citizens will have been inoculated with the vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the health authorities of their country, India will not allow it. These citizens will have to stay in quarantine and undergo other restrictions in India, shared centre.

Earlier even the Serum Institute of India (SII) submitted an application for the approval of its vaccine, Covishield.

Now Covishield is added to the list of vaccines that have been approved by the EU. It includes Comirnaty of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Vaxzervria by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Janssen by Johnson & Johnson.

A Green Pass is like a Certificate that proves you have been vaccinated against Covid19. It is the ‘EU Digital Covid Certificate’ that will be recognized by the members of the bloc starting Thursday, (July 1). This pass is necessary and will show that you are vaccinated.