Saudi Arabia recognises Serum Institute’s Covishield, exempts quarantine for fully vaccinated

In a big relief for many Indians, Saudi Arabia on Friday recognised Pune based Serum Institute of India’s Covishield as an approved COVID-19 vaccine for entry into the country.

Covishield became the ninth vaccine to get approval from the Arab country after vaccines like Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

This decision now enables fully vaccinated Indian travellers to enter Saudi Arabia without having to undergo institutional quarantine. A statement was issued in this regard by the Saudi Tourism Authority. Indian travellers who have spent 14 days in a country that is not on the list of countries where entry is temporarily suspended have also been permitted to enter but have to be fully vaccinated.

Saudi Tourism Authority also added that a negative PCR test conducted no more than 72 hours before departure is a mandatory requirement in all cases.

To curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Saudi Arabia in July decided to impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to countries on its ‘red list’, including India. However, in August it allowed fully-vaccinated Indian nationals to return without quarantining in a third country based on certain conditions.

The recognition of Covishield by Saudi Arabia is a positive development as this will pave the way for opening borders to Indian Tourists. However, Saudi Arabia is yet to recognise India’s indigenous vaccine Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. This year in August a man from Kerala had filed a petition in the Kerala High Court to be revaccinated with Covishield.

The man Girikumar, 50 had filed the plea in the Kerala High Court stating that he works in Saudi Arabia which is yet to recognise the Covaxin as the COVID-19 vaccine.