Explained: What UK’s new Covid-19 travel rules mean for a flyer from India
The UK has changed its Covid-19 travel rules. Who can travel to the country from India? What does excluding Covishield from the list of approved vaccines mean?
Travellers at an airport in the United Kingdom (File Photo)
The UK has changed its Covid-19 travel rules, placing Indians who are vaccinated with Covishield in the category of ‘unvaccinated’. While it has relaxed the rules for those vaccinated with two doses Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the same version of the vaccine being manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute of India has been kept out of the list.
The UK currently has a system that designates countries in ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ list. If a person has been in a ‘red list’ country in the 10 days before arrival in the UK, she has to quarantine for 10 days in a quarantine hotel; and take a Covid-19 test on or before day 2 or after day 8 of quarantining. Even fully vaccinated people have to follow these rules: The penalty is up to £10,000 for violation of quarantine rules, and £5,000 for arriving without a prior negative test.
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India features in the ‘amber list’. If a person has been in an ‘amber list’ country in the 10 days before arrival in England, she has to take a Covid-19 test in the three days before travelling to England. If a traveller arrives without proof of a negative Covid-19 test before departure, the fine is £500. After arrival, the traveller has to take a Covid-19 test on day 2.
The prior test is necessary for fully vaccinated travellers, too — but they are exempt from quarantine if they have taken the full course of an ‘authorised’ vaccine. ‘Authorised’ includes two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca vaccine (traveller must have the final dose at least 14 days before arrival in England), or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
If the traveller from the amber list is not fully vaccinated with the authorised vaccine, she has to quarantine on arrival at home or in the place where she is staying; take a test on or before day 2 of arrival; and take another test on or after day 8. If the traveller tests positive for Covid-19, she and the household must quarantine for 10 days from the day of the test. If tests on the traveller’s samples detect a ‘variant of concern’, all her contacts too will be asked to take a test.
Travellers from ‘green list’ countries too need to take a test Covid-19 test three days before the trip to England; and book a day-2 test after arrival in England. There is blanket exemption from quarantine for the green list, unless the test result is positive on day 2.
From October 4, there will only be a single red list of countries. For travel from countries not on the red list, the rules will depend only the traveller’s vaccination status.
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At the international arrivals area of Terminal 5 in London’s Heathrow Airport. (Reuters Photo)
What about travellers from India?
The list of authorised vaccines recognises the full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua, and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan – and even mixing of two-dose vaccines (Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna).
Although, India’s vaccination drive predominantly uses Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, India has been kept out of the list.
What does excluding Covishield mean?
This effectively means that Indians administered with Covishield, the same vaccine as the UK’s AstraZeneca, have to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test in the 3 days before travelling to England; book and pay for day-2 and day-8 tests to be taken in England; and quarantine at home for 10 days.
The traveller can end the quarantine early, if she can pay for a private Covid-19 test through a ‘test to release’ scheme. For instance, if she arrives in England on a Monday, Tuesday will be her first full day of quarantine, and she can opt for a second test not earlier than the fifth day, which will be Saturday. If the result for the day-5 test is negative, she can stop quarantine, but she will still need to take the compulsory day-8 test.
Government sources said they are invoking the reciprocity principle. They said a ‘note verbale’ has been sent to the UK Embassy, where they have said UK citizens will also be subject to 10 days’ quarantine. Government sources also told The Indian Express that the UK decision is not related to the addition of Serum Institute of India as an alternative manufacturing site on the ‘Vaxzevria’ licence granted to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
