Ten European countries bow to pressure and accept Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccine at borders

Ten European countries have bowed to pressure and unilaterally said they will accept the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca jab at their borders amid mounting anger from Britons who unknowingly received the vaccine.

It comes after The Telegraph revealed that up to five million AstraZeneca shots administered in the UK fell foul of the EU’s new vaccine passport scheme and could result in holidaying Britons being turned back at Europe’s borders.

The jabs, which were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and quietly cleared for use by British regulators, have not been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and therefore do not qualify for the EU’s vaccine passport scheme under its current rules.

As concern mounted among affected Britons, the UK authorities appeared to be trying to get the Indian shots used in Britain approved by the EMA.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was optimistic about a solution after meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who opened the door for fully vaccinated Britons to travel to Germany without quarantine measures in the “foreseeable future”.

“I see no reason at all why the MHRA-approved vaccines should not be recognised as part of the vaccine passports and I’m very confident that that will not prove to be a problem,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the UK’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

Downing Street added that the MHRA has shared its assessment of Indian manufacturers with its counterpart at the EMA to assist the approval process.

The EU’s failure to recognise the Indian-made vaccine – the main vaccine used in low and middle income countries – had already caused outrage across Africa and Asia, where millions of doses have been administered.

But on Friday, eight EU states, plus Iceland and Switzerland, took advantage of their ability to diverge from the main EU scheme and said they would accept the Indian-manufactured vaccine at their borders.

The countries include Greece and Spain, two of Britain's most popular overseas holiday destinations.

Many Telegraph readers reacted with anger on Friday after discovering they had received the Indian-made jab – which is identifiable only via its batch numbers (4120Z001, 4120Z002, 4120Z003) – as their travel plans were thrown into doubt.

“I’m not too impressed, I have to say,” Lisa Spann, aged 50, told The Telegraph, after discovering her first dose was the version manufactured in India, known as Covishield. “[It’s an] admin issue no doubt, but Laurel and Hardy would have done a much better job.”

“What did they think would happen? It would be swept under the carpet and we wouldn’t know?” added Tanya Barrow, aged 52, from Hampshire. “It just seems there is headline after headline that feels like a punch in the gut. I don’t mind that it was produced in India… the fact it hasn’t been approved [in Europe] and is now not recognised, though, really does annoy me.”

On Friday, the European Commission said it was exploring options for accepting the Covishield vaccine across the bloc, though it warned this could take time.

“In order to ensure a coordinated approach, the Commission is in discussion with the member states to see which is the best approach to follow,” a spokesperson said.

He insisted that, in the interim, a vaccine was not a “precondition” of travel to Europe. “I don’t think you can say it will not be possible to come to the EU with this vaccine,” he said.

The EU’s Digital Covid Certificate, which launched on Thursday, allows those who are fully vaccinated, recently tested or recovered from Covid-19 to move across borders within the EU without having to quarantine or undergo extra coronavirus tests upon arrival.

As a third country, the UK is not part of the scheme but hopes to link the NHS app to it in the coming weeks in order to make travel easier for British citizens.

Professor Adam Finn, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), on Friday downplayed the Covishield issue as an “administrative hurdle”.

“The most important part of this is that people who have received these batches should be reassured that they have received exactly the same stuff as people who have received other batches made elsewhere,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

“It’s clearly, ultimately, not in anyone’s interest, including the European Union, to create hurdles that don't need to be there,” Prof Finn added. “I would anticipate that this will get straightened out in due course.”

Internationally, the organisations behind the Covax scheme have also urged the EU to rethink its policy on the Covishield shot, which has been given to millions of people across Africa and Asia and is different in branding, not substance.

There is no suggestion that the shot is substandard; instead it has not been approved by the EMA because the SII is yet to apply for authorisation. The manufacturer’s target audience was not Europe, but low and middle income countries.

“We are in contact with all relevant parties and hope for a resolution to this situation soon,” a spokesperson for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said.

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