Australia formally recognises India's Covaxin

Melbourne: Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator on Monday formally recognised India's Covaxin, a vaccine against the Coronavirus as the country's border was reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, and AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covishield are the two widely used vaccines in India.

Australia has already recognised Covishield.

"Today, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) determined that Covaxin (manufactured by Bharat Biotech, India) and BBIBP-CorV (manufactured by Sinopharm, China) vaccines would be 'recognised' for the purpose of establishing a traveller's vaccination status, Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator TGA said.

This recognition is for travellers aged 12 and over who have been vaccinated with Covaxin, and those 18 to 60 who have been vaccinated with BBIBP-CorV.

In recent weeks, the TGA has obtained additional information demonstrating these vaccines provide protection and potentially reduce the likelihood that an incoming traveller would transmit COVID-19 infection to others while in Australia or become acutely unwell due to COVID-19.