Vaccine experts expressed confidence Friday that an “administrative hurdle” preventing some five million Britons who received an AstraZeneca jab made in India from travelling to Europe will soon be resolved.
Because of this, the Indian factory has yet to apply for a license for the doses with the European Medicines Agency, meaning the EU does not consider it a valid vaccine to enter the bloc.
On Friday, Professor Adam Finn, a member of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), said it was a bureaucratic problem. However, there was no suggestion that the Indian-made jab was less able to protect against Covid.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program, “They are the same vaccine, but only made by a different factory. People who have received these batches should be reassured that they have received exactly the same material as people who have received other batches manufactured elsewhere.”
He continued, “I think this is an administrative hurdle that needs to be corrected, but people should not worry that they are somehow less protected.”
There are fears that the current situation will cause holidaying Britons trying to enter countries such as France to walk away at the border when their vaccine data is scanned on the NHS app, including the batch number of the doses they have received.
Earlier this week, Malta’s problems were problems as the country could not read the QR code on the NHS app and asked UK travellers for paper documents proving their vaccination status.
