France Recognises Covishield For Vaccine Pass, Tightens Travel Rules

France is the 14th European Union member to recognise the Covishield vaccine for allowing entry to travellers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

France will consider people fully vaccinated one week after they received their second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca shots, instead of 14 days previously, and 28 days after their Johnson & Johnson jab. The country will also accept vaccination by Covishield, a copy of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, for its health pass, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in a statement on Saturday. France is the 14th European Union member to recognise the Covishield vaccine for allowing entry to travellers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden already have already cleared the vaccine. The country would require people not fully vaccinated and arriving from some European countries to show a negative Covid test taken within the previous 24 hours. Arrivals from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and the Netherlands will be subject to the new rule, which comes into effect at midnight Saturday into Sunday, Castex. To date, people arriving from the United Kingdom are required to show a negative test taken within the past 48 hours.