A day after receiving reciprocal action, The UK government renewed guidelines for its nationals travelling to India.
The official travel advisory also declares that all such travelers under isolation/quarantine shall be continuously monitored by State/District Health Authorities.
Receiving reciprocal curbs from New Delhi on Monday, the UK government updated its official advisory on Saturday for British citizens traveling to India and informed that it was in close contact with Indian authorities on this issue. According to the updated official travel advisory by (FCDO) The UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, on eight-day on their on cost, another COVID-19 test has been made compulsory, also from Monday all travelers going to India from Britain have to quarantine for 10 days on their destination place.
The advisory noted that all the passengers under isolation/quarantine shall be consistently monitored by State/District Health officials. It was an unusual move as India has never announced such restrictions for any country so far.
The official advisory was updated a day after the Indian government announced that all British nationals arriving in India from the UK will have to go through a compulsory 10-day quarantine from Monday disregarding their vaccination report as part of reciprocal action in opposition to the UK’s new international travel guideline with similar procedure for Indians.
The spokesperson of the UK government informed the PTI that the Indian officials are responsible for setting and implementing the rules for entry into India. We are in close contact with them and soon update FCDO Travel Advice on GOV.UK with the latest information on any changes to the guideline.
The action accompanies certification of the Indian vaccine still not being officially recognized by the UK government. From Monday when the new travel guideline of England comes that completely vaccinated Indian travelers to Britain had compulsory to undertake the same level of PCR tests and quarantine curbs as unvaccinated travelers.
On Saturday UK government officials informed that the expansion of vaccine certification to additional countries will be reviewed almost every three weeks and that it continues to enlist with the Indian government on the issue.
Sources said that the UK government is maintaining work on extending the policy across the globe in an incremental approach. We are continuing to engage with the government of India on technical cooperation to expand the UK acknowledgment of vaccine certification to vaccinated Indian people vaccinated by pertinent public health generality in India.
Further, they added that we are working with the groups of international partners and look forward to continuing the extension of the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach.
As per the UK functionaries, taking into account public health factors the decision are made by ministers on vaccine recognition.
Officials said that the UK is looking for extending the role that vaccination can take part more widely for those who enter the UK and have been fully vaccinated elsewhere.
The UK has restated that it remains committed to again opening up international travel as soon as it is feasible and the addition of vaccine certification is an extra step to enable people again to travel safe and more freely in a durable way while protecting public health.
The red, and amber, green traffic light system of England, countries based on levels of COVID-19 risk officially ends from Monday. Although in spite of the Indian manufactured Covishield a formulation of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine recognized within the UK’s permitted vaccine formulations and being the most used vaccine in India would not provide any benefits to vaccinated travelers from India.
The Indian government had strongly criticized such a move and warned of reciprocal measures if vaccinated Indian travelers continued to be treated in a prejudiced way.
UK government sources informed on Friday that communication between the British High Commission officials in New Delhi and the Indian health ministry to allow a vaccine certification system is in progress but no decision on this matter has been found, from October 4, 10-day quarantine will be compulsory in both countries, disregarding of the vaccination report.
