As destinations worldwide prepare to reopen, a new confusion with the potential to significantly affect international travel is emerging. With the high number of COVID-19 vaccines developed, complicated cross-border travel rules have arisen as various countries approve different vaccines.
For example, this month, the European Union said it would not admit visitors jabbed with the Covishield vaccine despite its similarity to the AstraZeneca vaccine used in the EU. The reason, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not approved it. Instead, EMA has only given a thumbs-up to Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca, and Janssen.
On the other hand, some countries have approved more vaccines in addition to those on the EMA list. Hungary, for instance, has as many as eight. So now the Indian government, where Covishield comes from, is threatening to retaliate. The policy may also affect Covishield recipients outside the EU – including Kenya, where most have received it.
The COVID Vaccine Checker
But a new online COVID vaccine checker may come in handy if you plan to travel outside your home country. It will help to minimise the current confusion with international travel. You can use it to check whether your travel destination has approved your type of vaccine or not. The tool developed by VisaGuide.world, an online free information guide to worldwide visas, uses three simple steps as follows:
- Open the COVID Vaccine Checker tool.
- Select the COVID-19 vaccine you have.
- Select the country you want to visit.
The vaccine checker will show you whether your travel destination accepts your vaccine immunisation for COVID-19 or not. However, it will not tell you if your destination has reopened its borders for international travel. So you still will need to check this with the official authorities in your destination country! At the end of it all, do not let your guard down – wear a mask, observe social distancing because no vaccine is full-proof!
UPDATE: Covishield is now eligible for travel to Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Ireland and Spain, Iceland and Switzerland. Estonia has also confirmed that it will recognise all the vaccines authorised by India for incoming travellers. Meanwhile, a racket for fake COVID-19 vaccine certificates looms large in Kenya. So far, over 100 Kenyans have been arrested in Dubai using these certificates. Because of this, Kenya is among 13 countries UAE has issued a Visa ban on. Other culprits include Somalia, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria.