India-made Covishield not eligible for European Union’s ‘vaccine passport’ yet

In a recent update, the European Union has declined Green Pass/vaccine passports to travellers vaccinated with the Covishield vaccine. Covieshield is the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufactured in India.

As of now, the EU is only recognising the Vaxzevria version of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is produced in the UK and Europe. The vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, the EMA has not yet given its approval to Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine.
It is quite surprising that the vaccine has not been approved as both Vaxzevria and Covishield are the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines. The four other vaccines that have been approved by the EMA include Moderna, Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca-Oxford) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

Earlier, the European Union had mentioned that member states can issue travel certificates regardless of the type of Coronavirus vaccine. However, now the form indicates that the pass will only be issued to “vaccines that have received EU-wide marketing authorization”.
A large percentage of Indian population has received Covishield, which is already approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). A number of EU countries including Spain, Germany and Greece have started using the vaccine passport system, while other European nations are expected to start using it from July 1.