Offensive to make vaccinated Indians quarantine in UK: Shashi Tharoor

Indian opposition MP Shashi Tharoor has pulled out of several planned engagements in the United Kingdom, citing the COVID-19 quarantine rules put in place by the British government.

Taking to Twitter, Tharoor complained that "it is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine." "Because of this, I have pulled out of a debate at the Cambridge Union & out of launch events for the UK edition of my book The Battle Of Belonging (published there as The Struggle For India's Soul). It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing!" the senior Congress leader tweeted.

Currently, people vaccinated in India and other countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Thailand, and Russia are considered "unvaccinated" and must follow the 10-day quarantine and test rule.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has only approved Covid vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, US pharma majors Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, China's Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca for emergency use.

Under the changes announced by the UK government last week, From October 4, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of COVID-19 risk will be scrapped and replaced with one red list only.

The scrapping of an amber list, which India is currently on, means a reduced cost burden for travellers - especially for the Indian people vaccinated in the UK - related to compulsory PCR tests.

However, an expanded list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in England does not include India. This means that Indians vaccinated with Covishield, the Serum Institute of India produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, would still be required to undergo a pre-departure PCR test and further tests on landing in the UK.

(ANI)