WHO vaccine list | People vaccinated with Covaxin may not be allowed to travel abroad: Report

Vaccine beneficiaries who have been fully vaccinated by both doses of Covaxin might not be allowed to travel internationally as the vaccine produced by Bharat Biotech has not been included in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) yet, according to a report by LiveHindustan.

Indians are relying heavily upon Covishield and Covaxin. Covishield, which is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in association with AstraZeneca and University of Oxford, is not completely indigenous. However, Covaxin is a wholly indigenous vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

Based on data collected from covid19.trackvaccines.org, less than 10 nations have officially approved the Covaxin while most countries only recognise Covishield as the required vaccine for passengers coming from India.

"As several nations in Europe are reopening in a bid to boost their travel and tourism industries, they are likely to make regulations for entry of travellers based on recommendations of their respective health departments or are likely to allow people vaccinated with the shots manufactured by companies which are on WHO’s EUL list," the report stated.

WHO listed the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use on December 31, 2020; and two AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines on February 15, produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India; and the COVID-19 vaccine Ad26.COV2.S developed by Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) on March 12. The UN body has also granted approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and included China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in its EUL.

In the case of Covaxin, the WHO is yet to make an announcement regarding its inclusion in EUL.