Its popular island Portugal, Madeira will allow visitors to enter with a vaccination certificate with any of the COVID-19 vaccines given in the various countries and not just those approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the local government has announced.
The EU, which last week launched the European COVID-19 Certificate, has so far licensed only four vaccines: Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. The certificate allows citizens to travel more freely to the countries of the bloc if they have been vaccinated with one of the four approved formulations, if they have a negative test result for the coronavirus or if they have acquired immunity due to a recent illness, the RES reports.
Member States may decide to extend the certificate to European travelers vaccinated with other medicinal products. The Portuguese mainland receives only four approved vaccines, but Madeira, an autonomous region famous for its wine and vegetation, said those vaccinated with other drugs, such as Chinese Sinovac or Indian Covaxin, could they visit her.
Madeira Health Minister Pedro Ramos said everyone would be welcome “because if millions of people have been vaccinated with these drugs (which have not been approved by the EU), their level of protection is similar to that of others.”
The decision came amid criticism from the EU for not including Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India, in the list of approved vaccines for the certificate. Some five million people in Britain, a major source of foreign tourists in Madeira, are thought to have been vaccinated with Covishield, which is also used by the COVAX mechanism for global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
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