Italy recognizes CovidShield, Indian vaccine card holders now eligible for green

Briefing about the development via Twitter, the Embassy of India in Italy said that the development was a result of the G20 Health Ministers meeting between Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and his Italian counterpart Roberto Speranza. The Embassy also recognized the consistent efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs of India and the Ministry of Health of Italy.

While the UK’s recognition of Pune-based SII’s Covishield is under debate, Italy has become the newest country to recognize an India-made vaccine. The UK updated its travel advisory on Wednesday, accepting Covishield as an ‘approved vaccine’. However, despite being fully vaccinated with Kovidshield, Indian travelers will have to undergo a mandatory quarantine on arrival.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday that India can take “reciprocal measures” if the UK does not change the policy that requires Indian citizens to undergo mandatory quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated with the Kovidshield vaccine. Have gone Terming it as a “discriminatory policy”, Shringla said the rules would affect Indians wishing to travel to the UK. The new rules were unveiled last week and are set to take effect in October.

Covishield is recognized by at least 40 countries. India’s cumulative Covid-19 vaccination was close to 85 crore on Friday, with most of the shots being from Covishield. Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry said that over 81.39 crore vaccine doses have been provided to the States and Union Territories (UTs) so far through the Government of India (free channel) and the Direct State Procurement category. In addition, around 86 lakh doses are in the pipeline. States and Union Territories still have more than 4.23 crore remaining and untapped COVID-19 vaccine doses.

At least 31,382 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours with 318 deaths. The active caseload currently stands at 3,00,162. Active cases currently account for 0.89% of the total positive cases in the country. Data from the Union Health Ministry shows that this is the lowest figure in active cases in India since March 2020.

The cumulative number of cured patients (since the start of the pandemic) has increased to 3,28,48,273 from 32,542 patients recovered in the last 24 hours. As a result, India’s recovery rate stands at 97.78%. Government data shows that the recovery rate is currently at its peak since March 2020.

India has conducted over 55.99 crore cumulative COVID-19 tests so far. The Union Health Ministry said that the weekly positivity rate at 2.07% has remained less than 3% for the past 91 days. The daily positivity rate was reported to be 2%. The daily positivity rate has remained below 3% for the last 25 days and below 5% for 108 consecutive days, it said.