SII CEO Adar Poonawalla assures to resolve Covishield's exclusion from EU's 'Green Pass'

Amid the controversy over Covishield being left out of European Union (EU)'s 'Green Pass', Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawaala on Monday, assured travellers that he has taken up the issue at the highest levels. Hoping to resolve the matter soon, he said that he was in touch with EU regulators and at a diplomatic level with different countries. The 'Green Pass' which will come into force from July 1, allows unrestricted movement in all EU member states for business and tourism purposes.

Poonawalla assures of Covishield EU Green Pass

Covishield excluded from EU Green Pass

As European states started unlocking amid reduced COVID cases, the EU created the European COVID-19 travel certificate to restore the freedom of travel, removing entry bans, quarantine obligation, and testing, according to EU's official visa portal (schengenvisainfo.com). While Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland were the first to issue EU COVID-19 passports, all EU member states have agreed to a 'Green Pass' to travel across the continent from July 1. The Member States are not legally obliged to implement the certificate, but most are already in the process of introducing it.

Furthermore, three types of EU’s COVID-19 passport has been launched - Vaccination passport, Test certificate and Recovery certificate, based on the traveller’s status. Holding such a document will be able to travel throughout Europe without the need to quarantine or test for COVID-19. However, only four vaccines have been approved by the European Medicine Agency - namely Comirnaty (BioNTech, Pfizer), Moderna, Vaxzevria (previously COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca, Oxford) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). EU Commission has also permitted the Member States to issue certificates for travellers vaccinated with vaccines other than those approved by EMA, if they want to permit entry for those vaccinated with such vaccines or not.

Covishield - which is produced by SII in partnership with AstraZeneca, has not been specifically mentioned, leading to confusion as to whether Indians vaccinated on Covishield can travel to EU or not. Other vaccines approved in India - Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and RDIF's Sputnik V have also not been approved by EMA. India has administered 31,94,46,320 vaccine doses till date of which 28,09,72,775 doses are of Covishield. Centre has assured that both Covishield and Covaxin are effective on Alpha, Beta, Gama and Delta variants of the Coronavirus.