In particular, 64-year-old Steve Hardy and his 63-year-old wife Glenda, on Friday wanted to travel to Malta where their son has been for a year.
However, the couple complained to the Telegraph that they had arrived at Manchester airport to depart on a TUI flight to Malta, before boarding the travel agency told the couple that they could not travel as well, although fully vaccinated since March. , had made a vaccine of AstraZeneca, which was made in India and does not have EMA approval.
Steve Hardy said: "When we got vaccinated we got a vaccine, we were asked to get vaccinated, we did both doses. We did not know which vaccine we had. We have trusted the government in this matter. Boris Johnson had said that there were no Indian vaccines in the country. This, obviously, is a lie, as it appears on our page (on the vaccination certificate). The problem is that we can not see our son. We have been through so much now. "It was a complete disappointment. What are we supposed to do?"
According to Steve Hardy, this was the couple's fourth attempt to travel to Malta, since their trip had been canceled three times in the past due to lockdown.
The AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India is WHO approved
Although the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in India by the Serum Institute of India, has no problem and has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), it has not yet been recognized by Coreper and Malta. is not included in European countries, which have already agreed to accept the vaccine.
However, after the incident was covered by the British media, the British Minister of Transport Grand Saps spoke on BBC Breakfast and said that the government would resolve the "misunderstanding" with the Maltese authorities. A little later he announced via Twitter:
"Malta authorities have amended their travel directives so that anyone vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the UK (regardless of their site of manufacture) can travel without being sent back - with all vaccines subjected to strict controls safety and quality ". It is estimated that five million Britons have been vaccinated in India to date with the AstraZeneca vaccine, unaware that it is not currently approved by Coreper. The vaccine has been approved by the competent authority in the United Kingdom. "