India is in touch with the EU member states in this regard for reciprocal acceptance

India has said that it expects other European Union countries to accept made in India Covid-19 vaccines and treat people vaccinated domestically at par with those vaccinated in the EU.

This comes on the day the Netherlands has approved Serum Institute of India’s Covishield as a valid proof of vaccination for traveling to their country.

Eight EU countries including Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are among the countries allowing travel by people who have taken Covishield vaccines.

At a weekly media briefing on Friday, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We understand that the European Union has now instituted the EU digital Covid-certificate for exempting restrictions on the movement of vaccinated people. Our expectation is that the Indians who have been vaccinated through our domestic vaccination program would be treated at par with those vaccinated in the EU.”

“The COWIN vaccination certificate would be recognized by the EU on a reciprocal basis. As you are aware such COWIN vaccination certificate can be authenticated on the COWIN website itself. We are in touch with the EU member states in this regard for reciprocal acceptance. I understand that a number of EU countries have already taken positive steps in this direction,” he added.

On the issue of vaccines, Bagchi said that the government is making all efforts to augment vaccine availability in the country be it through vaccine production or through imports.

Moving on to the issue of supply of vaccines abroad, the MEA spokesperson reiterated that currently our priority remains on purposing domestic production to our domestic vaccination program which as you know is progressing rapidly.

India entered the third phase of vaccination on June 21 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s free vaccination policy came into place. To date, the country has vaccinated more than 34 crore people against Covid-19, according to the data provided by the health ministry.

As regards the issue of traveling to India, these are being dealt by the health ministry and the Ministry of Home affairs, he said, adding, “We will share updates if there are any.”