The Sinopharm vaccine which is being administered in Namibia will now be recognized for United Kingdom (UK) inbound travel with effect from the 22 November, 2021.
This comes as the country’s government announced that it will recognise vaccines on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL), as a result, Sinovac, Sinopharm Beijing and Covaxin will be added to the list of approved vaccines for the UK.
The UK government will also simplify travel rules for all under-18s coming to England who will be treated as fully vaccinated at the border and will be exempt from self-isolation requirements on arrival, day 8 testing and pre-departure testing.
They will only be required to take 1 post-arrival test and a confirmatory free PCR test if they test positive.
“By also simplifying the rules for international travel for all under-18s coming to England, we’re bringing further good news for families looking to unite with loved ones, and another great boost for the travel sector,” Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said.
The UK had been criticized over its policy of not accepting COVID-19 vaccine certificates from the continent , with people who had been vaccinated in most countries outside the UK, EU and US still needing to quarantined on arrival.
Initially, the UK refused to recognise the AstraZeneca vaccines produced in India, even though they are exactly the same as those made in Europe.
In October the UK government removed Namibia from its ‘red list’, allowing unrestricted travel between the two countries.
The number of countries on the UK COVID travel ‘red list’ was cut from 54 to seven.
Red-list countries are those the UK government says should not be visited “except in the most extreme of circumstances”.
Under the UK’s travel rules, travelers who have been to a country or territory on the ‘red list’ in the last 10 days, were only allowed to enter the UK if they are British or Irish nationals or have residence rights in the UK.
These travelers were subject to rigorous COVID testing and had to quarantine at a designated hotel at their own cost.
