Australia Okays Covishield as Recognized Vaccine
Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has advised that the Covishield vaccine be considered as a ‘recognised vaccine’ for the purpose of "determining incoming international travelers as being properly vaccinated”.
Canberra/New Delhi: Australia on Friday gave the go-ahead to Serum Institute of India’s Covishield as a ‘recognized vaccine’ for incoming travellers.
A media statement from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office said the country’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has advised that the Covishield vaccine be considered as a ‘recognised vaccine’ for the purpose of “determining incoming international travelers as being properly vaccinated”.
“Today, the TGA has published its initial assessment of the data on the protection offered by the Coronavac (Sinovac) and Covishield (AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India) vaccines and has advised that these vaccines should be considered as ‘recognised vaccines’ for the purpose of determining incoming international travellers as being appropriately vaccinated,” it said.
It said that “declaring certain COVID-19 vaccines as ‘recognised vaccines’ is separate to a regulatory decision on whether they are approved for use for vaccination in Australia, which has not been made by the TGA”.
Australia has approved four COVID-19 vaccines for use by the TGA – Pfizer (Comirnaty), AstraZeneca (Vaxzevria), Moderna (Spikevax) and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen.
