Nine countries in Europe accept Covishield for travel

New Delhi: Nine European nations are accepting Covishield vaccines for travel to their countries, sources said on Thursday.

Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are among the countries allowing travel by people who have taken Covishield vaccines, the sources said.

They said Switzerland is also accepting Covishield as a Schengen state.

Separately, Estonia has confirmed that it will recognise all vaccines authorised by the government of India for the travel of Indians to that country, the sources said.

India has already asked the EU member countries to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken Covishield and Covaxin vaccines and want to travel to Europe.

There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its 'Green Pass' scheme.

An EU official on Tuesday said individual member states of the European Union will have the option to accept vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) like Covishield for obtaining the bloc's digital Covid certificate.

Meanwhile, India added 48,786 new cases of Coronavirus taking the total tally to 3,04,11,634, while the national recovery rate improved to 96.97 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The COVID-19 death toll rose to 3,99,459 with 1,005 fresh fatalities.

The active cases have further declined to 5,23,257 comprising 1.72 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.97 per cent.

As many as 19,21,450 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 41,20,21,494.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.54 per cent. It has been less than five per cent for 24 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.64 per cent.

Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 49th consecutive day.The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,94,88,918, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.31 per cent, the data stated.

The BJP-led Assam government could vaccinate only 16.63 lakh people in the last 10 days, almost 45 per cent less than Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's target of inoculating 30 lakh people, due to a massive shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, a senior health official said on Thursday.

As per the daily COVID-19 bulletin issued by the National Health Mission under the state Health Department, a total of 16,63,405 people were inoculated across the state from June 21 to June 30.

This figure is way below the ambitious 30-lakh target set during Sarma's meeting with all the stakeholders of the districts on June 19.

The Odisha government on Thursday halted vaccination drive in 16 districts due to "shortage" of Covishield doses, amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, an official said.

The inoculation exercise was temporarily stopped during the day in Angul, Bolangir, Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jajpur and Jharsuguda, he said.