India has decided to impose reciprocity on British nationals under which UK citizens arriving in the country from Britain will have to undergo mandatory quarantine at home or at the destination address for 10 days after their arrival, sources said.
The step came days after the United Kingdom announced new travel rules that state that Indian travellers, even those who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine, will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undertake Covid tests and undergo a 10-day quarantine. Sources said that reciprocity will come into force from 4 October, that is Monday, the same day UK’s new travel rules come into effect.
“New regulations will come into effect from 4 October, and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving from the UK,” a source said.
Soon after the row erupted late in September, the British high commission in India clarified UK’s position by saying, “We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.” UK had concerns about the date of birth not being mentioned in the Co-Win certificate, which the Indian government promised to change. In spite of that the UK is yet to accept India’s vaccination certificate, even though both countries have discussed the matter.
With the UK unwilling to change its stand, India finally decided to go for reciprocal action. Sources said that 4 October onwards, all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake a pre-departure Covid-19 RT-PCR test within 72 hours before travel, RT-PCR test on arrival at the airport and an RT-PCR test on the eighth day after arrival.
“UK nationals arriving in India from the UK will have to undergo mandatory quarantine at home or in the destination address for 10 days after arrival,” the source said.
Sources said that authorities in Health and Civil Aviation Ministries will take steps to implement the new measures.
Reacting to India’s move, the British High Commission spokesperson said in a statement, “The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the Government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”
The spokesperson said the UK is open to travel and they are seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK, be it tourists, businesspeople or students. “Over 62,500 student visas have been issued in the year ending June 2021, which is an increase of almost 30% as compared to the previous year. We want to make the process of travelling as easy as possible.”
India had said last month that it would be within its rights to take reciprocal measures against UK’s “discriminatory” move to recognise AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, but not Covishield, which is the same vaccine but manufactured in India, if the issue is not satisfactorily resolved.
Even though the new British rules state that AstraZeneca Covishield is among the vaccines that qualify as approved, India is not yet on the list of 17 countries that have been exempted from quarantining. The “changes to international travel rules” state that formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines.
The new British rules also state that travellers will also qualify as fully vaccinated if they have taken a 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, Taiwan or the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Covishield, which has been developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, is manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
NEW VISA CONDITIONS
Sources say that with India set to open its borders for international tourists, the government has decided on “reciprocal treatment” to the applicants under new visa conditions. The visa facilitation will depend on the applicant’s home country’s policy for Indian tourists. A senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that to iron out all the issues emerging from such a situation, a meeting was held last week which was attended by representatives from all concerned agencies which was chaired by the Union Home Secretary.
“In the meeting, it was decided to provide reciprocal treatment to tourists visiting India. Many countries have opened for tourists from foreign countries but have posed several restrictions for Indian travellers. The issues have been raised with the diplomats of concerned countries to get issues resolved,” the official said.
So, an incoming foreign tourist might have to show their vaccination certificate or undergo a quarantine period or face rejection, which will depend on how they treat Indian tourists visiting their country.