Australia declares Covishield as 'recognised vaccine', looks forward to welcome Indian students, travellers

Australia's department of health's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has declared the Covishield vaccine as a ‘recognized vaccines’ for purposes of travel into Australia.

Image credit: Reuters

New Delhi: Visiting Australian Trade minister Dan Tehan has said that his country is "warmly looking forward" to welcome back Indian students to the country as Canberra gives a nod to Covishield for international travelers.

The development comes even as Australia is all set to reopen its borders in the month of November after months of closure amid the pandemic.

Tehan speaking to reporters in Delhi said the Australian side giving go ahead for Covishield, "means pathway for our Indian International students to return to Australia is there again. With semester one starting in Feb/March next year, those International students will be able to start returning towards the end of this year and towards beginning of next year. Can I say to all those Indian students that we are warmly looking forward to welcoming back to Australia. We can't wait. It's terrific news"

Australia's department of health's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has declared the Covishield (AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India) vaccine as a ‘recognized vaccines’ for purposes of travel into Australia.

TGA in its initial assessment of the data on the protection offered by the India-made vaccine advised it for travel purposes, along with China's  Coronavac (Sinovac).TGA is responsible for regulating the supply, import, export, manufacturing, and advertising of therapeutic goods in the country.

The number of Indian students currently enrolled for studying in Australia is around 90,000. The number of Indian students going to the country continues to grow and forms an important people-to-people linkage between the 2 countries. 

People who have received vaccines not recognized by the TGA, or who are unvaccinated, will be required to undertake 14 days of managed quarantine on arrival.

The problems faced by Indian students were raised by the Indian external affairs minister with his Australian counterpart, Minister Payne during the 2+2 dialogue in Delhi in early September.

During the talks, he urged that the difficulties faced by the students due to travel restrictions be "sympathetically addressed as soon as possible."

Asked about Indian vaccine Covaxin's approval by Australia, the Australian trade minister said, "It still before WHO, so obviously that steps need approval process and then TGA has to look into it". WHO or World Health Organization is expected to take a call on Covaxin's authorization on 5th of October.