India has withdrawn mandatory quarantine for all UK nationals arriving in the country.
Starting Wednesday, British citizens, who are fully vaccinated against Covid, will no longer have to undergo 10 days of quarantine after arriving in India.
This came days after UK eased similar travel restrictions for fully vaccinated Indians.
There have been tensions between the two countries over the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The UK had earlier refused to recognise the vaccine, known as Covishield, even though it is identical to the doses given to millions of Britons.
So, fully vaccinated Indian travellers had to still isolate for 10 days and take Covid-19 tests – at their own expense – before they were allowed to leave quarantine.
Officials in the UK designated Covishield an approved jab last month after a major backlash in India against what many saw as a discriminatory rule. But it did not add India to the exempt-from-quarantine-list and the restrictions continued.
This led to more backlash from Delhi, which imposed a mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated British nationals travelling to India. Finally on 8 October, UK added India to the exempt-from-quarantine list, ending the mandatory self-isolation.
Covishield is India’s primary vaccine, with more than 720 million doses given out so far. It is the same as the AstraZeneca jab used in the UK vaccine rollout.
Source: BBC
