Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, is not among the vaccines which have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its “vaccine passport” programme that allows free movement of people in and out of Europe.

• The EU Digital Covid Certificate, or the “green pass” as it is popularly known, has been created to restore freedom of travel for the public and remove the barriers on entry placed due to the pandemic.
• The new vaccine passport system coming into effect across EU from July 1.
• The absence of Covishield from the list of EMA-approved vaccines can be of particular concern for Indians who hope to travel to European countries soon.

What is the ‘green pass’ which will ease travel restrictions across EU?

The EU Digital Covid Certificate is a digital proof that a person has either been vaccinated against Covid-19, or received a negative test result, or recovered from the viral infection.

• The document is valid across all EU countries.
• National authorities are in charge of the programme and the document can be issued by test centres or health authorities, or directly via an eHealth portal.
• The certificate contains a digital signature which is verified when the QR code is scanned.
• Each issuing body has its own digital signature key, all of which are stored in a secure database in each country.

Which are the vaccines that have been approved by EMA for the purpose?

The EMA list only includes four vaccines now—

1. Vaxzevria (Oxford-AstraZeneca),
2. Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech),
3. Spikevax (Moderna) and
4. Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

None of the three vaccines which have been approved for use in India till date —Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V — feature on the list.

Why has Covishield not been included in the list?

Though Vaxzevria has been among the vaccines approved by EMA, Covishield, which is derived from AstraZeneca’s shot, is not on the list.

According to the BBC report, EMA said Serum Institute of India has not applied for Covishield’s approval.

• Even if the vaccine is the same, different manufacturers of the same product need to submit separate applications for approval from EMA.
• This is because the EMA takes into consideration local manufacturing facilities.

Source: IE / BBC