UK rolls back 10-day quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated Indian travellers from Oct 11
This comes after the Indian Government took reciprocal measures imposing a mandatory 10-day quarantine only for UK nationals visiting India.
In a big relief for Indian travellers flying to the UK, the country on Thursday announced that it would begin accepting India’s vaccination certificates from October 11 and that now no quarantine would be required for fully vaccinated travellers from India.
“No quarantine for Indian travellers to the UK fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from 11th October. Thanks to the Indian government for close cooperation over last month,” Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India said in a message on Twitter.
The UK, in effect from 4th October, had kept a mandatory 10-day quarantine for Indians flying into the UK. Despite repeated requests by the Centre for relaxation of the curbs, the government had not agreed to relax quarantine rules for Indian fliers. Due to this, even the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams had to pull out of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham citing Covid-19 concerns and the mandatory 10-day quarantine rule imposed by the UK.
Weeks after this, India imposed reciprocal measures that applied a mandatory 10-day quarantine only to UK nationals arriving in India from Britain. This came as the UK government didn’t make a call on accepting India’s vaccine certification more than 10 days after the conclusion of discussions between the two sides.
The British government’s failure to recognise Covishield, an Indian version of Britain’s AstraZeneca jab, had also given rise to allegations of vaccine racism. The country subsequently included Covishield in its list of approved vaccines.
Earlier in the day, India had said it was hopeful of finding a solution to the vaccine certification row. “Discussions are ongoing and we remain hopeful that some solution may emerge,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
He described Britain’s travel restrictions on Indian nationals with valid vaccine certificates as ‘clearly discriminatory’ and added that the measures imposed by the UK were ‘not right’. He added, “We took up the issue with the UK at various levels but without success.”
Now, in an update of its travel rules, the UK has removed 47 countries and territories from its ‘red list’. Starting October 11, the red list will be reduced to seven countries, and proof of vaccination will be recognised from 37 new countries and territories, including India, Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey.
Eligible vaccinated travellers in these 37 countries and territories will be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated UK residents, so long as they have not visited a red list country or territory within 10 days before arriving in England.
