UK New Travel Rules: Fully Vaccinated Indians Still Have To Undergo 10 Days of Quarantine

As you may already know that last week the United Kingdom has issued fresh guidelines and announced a major relaxation of international travel rules for vaccinated travelers arriving in the country.

But India is quite upset with the UK’s new vaccine-linked travel curbs as Indian travelers who have got both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be considered “unvaccinated” and will have to undergo 10 days of quarantine.

The new travel rules will come into effect from 04th Oct 2021,  the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of Covid-19 risk will be scrapped and will be replaced with one red list only.

As per the UK’s new travel guidelines only travelers who have got both shots of a double-dose vaccine such as;

• Oxford-AstraZeneca
• Pfizer-BioNTech
• Moderna
• Single shot Janssen Vaccine

“Under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine program overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.

The rules also consider travelers who have received vaccines under public health bodies in the following countries as fully vaccinated.

• Australia
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Barbados
• Bahrain
• Brunei
• Canada
• Dominica
• Israel
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• South Korea or Taiwan

This means Indian nationals who have received both doses of Covishield, the local version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and one of the two main vaccines being used for the domestic immunization program, will be considered unvaccinated.

Travelers from India are especially upset as the issue of vaccination-related travel restrictions has been repeatedly taken up with the UK at the highest levels.

The new travel rules of the United Kingdom will mostly affect students, who are now returning in large numbers to British universities or traveling to Britain to start new courses. The change will mean they will have to pay extra for more tests and quarantine.

Also Read: Abu Dhabi Announced New Entry Procedure From Within The UAE