Belgium approves India-made Covishield vaccine; becomes the 15th European nation to do so

Belgium becomes the next European Union nation to recognise the Covishield vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The Embassy of Belgium announced the same.

Belgium in India tweeted about the same, stating that Belgium recognises Covishield, the @AstraZeneca vaccine produced by @SerumInstIndia and distributed by COVAX. An important decision for India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh in the fight against vaccine inequality.
The Netherlands also approved the Covishield vaccine for travellers earlier this week.

Today our Deputy Chief of Mission/Chargé d'affaires @ArnaudLion4 spoke with @ANI on recognition of COVISHIELD by Belgium 🇧🇪. @BelgiumMFA @MEAIndia @EU_in_India https://t.co/t40dLNeV7h

— Belgium in India (@BelgiuminIndia) July 9, 2021

Apart from these countries, Switzerland, Iceland and seven EU countries have also recognised the said vaccine on July 1, a day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he had taken up this matter with the European bloc. As of now, Austria, Greece, Germany, Slovenia, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, and Estonia have recognised the SII-manufactured vaccine.
Authorities in India have called on the EU Member States to individually consider extending the exemption to all persons, who have received Covishield and Covaxin vaccines, while stressing that they will also introduce a reciprocal policy to recognise the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

Thus, with Belgium joining the league, 15 countries have now been added to the list that recognises the Covishield COVID-19 vaccine.

India has also urged EU to accept the vaccination certificates that are being issued via India's CoWIN portal.

However, the EU green pass or European Union (EU) Digital Covid Certificate uses the European Medicines Agency (EMA) list of approved vaccines, which has only four vaccines listed, and none of which are India-made.