UK approves India made version of Astrazeneca vaccine after major outcry

The United Kingdom finally recognized the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. More than 720 million people have been vaccinated through the Indian made Astrazeneca vaccine.

It was also the most widely used vaccine in the Caribbean, as most countries kickstarted their vaccination drives with the vaccines donated by the Republic of India.

About 25% of adults in India are fully vaccinated, while over 150 million have got both doses of Covishield at home.

The Serum Institute of India - known to be the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer, is currently making the doses under licence from AstraZeneca. It has also provided millions of doses to nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America under contracts signed with various administrations and as part of the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.

Many influential Indians had accused the UK of racism as the Covishield was originally developed in the UK. As per reports, the Serum Institute of India, based in Pune, even supplied over 5 million doses to the United Kingdom. The new rules are coming into effect from 4 October onwards, adding vaccinated travellers do not require to self-isolate; however, India was not mentioned in the list. In the recent COVID-19 guidelines, the UK does not recognize fully vaccinated travellers, requiring the individuals to self-isolate and take COVID-19 tests before they are allowed to move freely across the country.

The Prime Minister of the UK had stated in July that he was "very confident" there "will not be a problem" for travellers who had received an Indian-made Covid jab.

Following the behaviour of the UK towards Indian travellers, India is imposing similar constraints on those coming from Britain. All UK travellers to India are thermally checked for fever on arrival and give a negative Covid-19 test; however, they do not need to isolate.

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar took the matter extremely seriously and pressured his UK Counterpart, Liz Trus.