Covishield becomes collateral damage in the inter-EU tussle over Chinese vaccines

The EU member countries were divided over allowing Chinese COVID vaccine Sinopharm and Sinovac and Russian vaccines Sputnik V as the bloc opens up for travel.

New Delhi: Even as India-made Covishield is not on European Medicine Agency's (EMA) list that is used for EU green pass, it has emerged that it has become the collateral damage in the inter-EU tussle in the bloc over the bid to allow Chinese and Russian vaccines for travelers. The EU member countries were divided over allowing Chinese COVID vaccine Sinopharm and Sinovac and Russian vaccines Sputnik V as the bloc opens up for travel. The member countries came up with a compromise formula, under which EMA's vaccines list was agreed to be used for the green pass that comes into effect from July 1. European Medicines Agency has listed four vaccines, which are Comirnaty (Pfizer), COVID-19 vaccine Janssen, Spikevax (previously COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna), and AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria.