London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Anger over UK quarantine rules for fully vaccinated travelers from India and many African countries

Anger over UK quarantine rules for fully vaccinated travelers from India and many African countries

News that fully vaccinated travelers from India and many African countries will face mandatory quarantine in the UK, despite a relaxation of the country's inbound travel rules, has caused an outcry and accusations of discrimination.

The UK's revised travel advisory will take effect on October 4 and visitors from its list of "high risk" countries -- including India, more than 20 African countries and most Latin American nations -- will still have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days despite being fully vaccinated.

According to the new travel guidelines, passengers from the US, EU, and 18 other territories who have received full doses of UK-approved vaccines, including formulations of approved vaccines such as the Indian-made AstraZeneca shot branded Covishield, will not have to quarantine when they arrive in the UK.

No African country was included in the UK's green-listed countries. However, nearly half of 54 countries on the UK's high-risk list, also known as the "red list" -- comprising predominantly developing nations -- are from Africa.

The backlash against the UK's revised travel policy had initially stemmed from the reported exclusion of the Covishield shot from the list of approved coronavirus vaccines.

Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine maker. The African Union and Africa Centres for Disease Control (ACDC) had described Covishield as the "backbone" of the COVAX initiative, a global vaccine sharing initiative for low- and middle-income countries.

The vaccine was later included in an updated guideline released by UK authorities following a strong reaction from the Indian government and the Africa CDC.

The Africa CDC had questioned why the UK, a major financier of the COVAX scheme, would decline to recognize vaccine certificates from recipients of shots donated by COVAX. "If you send us vaccines and we use those vaccines, and you say you don't recognize people that have been immunized, it sends a very challenging message for us," John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC said at a press conference last week.

"It's a message that creates confusion within our own population and a message that doesn't really speak to solidarity and cooperation."

George Jobe, the executive director of Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN), told CNN the UK's stance on vaccine certificates could hurt Africa's already slow Covid vaccination drive.

"When we consider what we have gone through in Africa for people to get vaccinated amid all sorts of negative information and myths surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine, this news can affect the exercise to vaccinate as many people as possible because it may be misunderstood as though the vaccine being administered in Africa has no efficacy," Jobe said. "The UK government should revisit its stand."

The UK government acknowledges there is "frustration" with its new travel policy.

The British High Commission has issued statements in parts of Africa including Nigeria and Ghana saying: "We understand that there has been some frustration that new UK travel rules, coming into force on 4 October, will continue to require people traveling to the UK from Ghana to self-isolate despite having received two doses of recognized Covid-19 vaccines in Ghana."

It adds that: "The UK is committed to opening up international travel and we are using our Covid-19 vaccination certification process to enable those wishing to enter the UK to do so safely."

The UK has also faced criticism for leaving African countries on its list of high-risk destinations, even as Covid numbers were declining rapidly on the continent, according to the WHO.

Thousands of South Africans have signed a petition calling on UK authorities to remove the country from its red list, as the country exits the third wave.

African countries have been significantly less affected by the pandemic compared to other parts of the world.

South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation, Naledi Pandor, has described remaining on the UK's red list as "a political punishment."

"Keeping us on the red list sounds like a political punishment of some kind that we do not understand at all," Pandor said in an interview with CNN.

"Furthermore, I was horrified... to be informed by a South African citizen that a travel agency she was using to plan a trip to the United Kingdom said there's also some statement from the UK that if you come from a red list country, even if you are vaccinated, they do not recognize your vaccine amount. I find this astounding," Pandor added.

Fears over vaccine card fraud


The issue of whether the Indian variant of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be accepted for travel has confused travelers since the European Union refused to include it in the European Union Digital Covid Certificate in July.

The certificate enables fully vaccinated people to travel freely within the EU and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the AstraZeneca shot (branded Vaxzevria) which is manufactured by vaccine makers in Europe, the US, South Korea, and China.

The EMA said this version was licensed within the EU but the Indian version of the AZ vaccine produced by SII was not.

Covishield has since become accepted across parts of Europe, with more than a dozen European countries now recognizing the shot for travel.

The delay in approving the Covishield vaccine appears to be because of fears over vaccine certificate fraud. The British high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, has said that "Covishield is not the issue," but suggested instead that the exclusion of double-jabbed Indian travelers from the UK's quarantine waiver appears to be because of unresolved issues on India's vaccine certificates.

There were currently technical conversations ongoing between the builders of the Indian and UK vaccine apps with the aim of moving India and other countries on to its quarantine waiver list, Ellis said.

The UK has said in its statements that they are working "in partnership with the US and EU to recognize vaccine certificates from other countries as part of a phased review of the many Covid-19 vaccine certificates issued across the world."

The European Union's law enforcement agency had earlier raised alarm over the "illicit sale of false negative COVID-19 test certificates." In a February report, Europol stated forged Covid documents were sold for up to £100 ($134) in the UK.

In July, the US Department of Justice announced that it had arrested a California doctor for running a fake Covid-19 immunization and vaccine card scheme.

Security researchers at cybersecurity firm Check Point Software also reported that vaccine certificates from various countries including the US were selling on the dark web for around $200 each.

Some experts say the illicit trade in vaccine cards and digital passports is to be expected. "Not everyone has access to the vaccine; rollouts are slow in many countries, and people are tired of lockdowns and curfews," said Michela Menting, who covers cybersecurity for ABI Research.

"If people can easily get hold of a fake passport to avoid restrictions, then they will, and an illicit market will spring up around it."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×