UK Travel: Rules Relaxed But No Relief Yet For Indians Vaccinated With Covishield

The UK government has decided to ease travel rules and guidelines for people travelling to the country United Kingdom.

From October 4, the traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of COVID-19 risk will be scrapped. Only the red list, meant for COVID hotspots in the world, will be followed. India had already been taken off the Red list and put on Amber. From next month, there will be no Amber list, so unless India returns to Red category, there will be no problems from passengers flying from India to the UK.

However, India won’t benefit from an expanded list of countries whose vaccines are recognized in England.

Therefore, Indians vaccinated with Covishield – which is the Serum Institute of India-produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine — would still be required to undergo a pre-departure RT-PCR test as well as tests on landing in the UK.

Travellers from India will also have to undergo a 10-day mandatory home quarantine after arriving in England.

Japan, Singapore and Malaysia are among 17 additional countries whose travellers with eligible vaccines will no longer have to undergo pre-departure tests.