london the uk foreign office officials have been briefed on the current covid19 pandemic situation in india where many big cities are practically covidfree and encouraged to consider a review of the travel ban on visitors from india foreign secretary harsh vardhan shringla said on saturdayshringla who arrived in the uk for a twoday visit on friday to take stock of the roadmap 2030 towards closer ukindia ties agreed between prime ministers narendra modi and boris johnson also shared plans for a reciprocal vaccine certification system to be unveiled by the indian government soon to facilitate international travelduring his visit he held meetings with senior uk government representatives including permanent undersecretary in the foreign commonwealth and development office fcdo sir philip barton and fcdo minister for south asia lord tariq ahmad mumbai delhi big cities are practically free of covid but we cant rest on that situation because we are constantly vigilant telling our citizens to take precautions so that we dont have a third wave said shringlai briefed them uk officials on the covid situation in india i pointed out that france had cleared visitors from india without quarantine if they are double vaccinated and have a negative test the us has upgraded india in the travel scheme encouraged the uk to do the same and they took note of it he said in response to a question on international travelunder the current rules india remains on the travel red list which effectively bans visitors from india with returning citizens required to undergo a compulsory 10day hotel quarantine on entry to britain with reference to instances of the indiamade oxfordastrazeneca vaccine covishield not being recognised by the european union eu the foreign secretary reiterated that astrazeneca had applied to the european medicines agency ema on behalf of the serum institute of india sii in a letter dated may 14its an oxfordastrazeneca vaccine being manufactured under a transfer of technology in india so there cant be any difference in product between that produced at the serum institute of india sii or anywhere else said shringlathe eu has said they will leave it to individual member states to decide and 14 eu countries have already recognised covishield two of them have also recognised covaxin suo moto we are now asking all countries that you recognise our vaccine certification on a mutual reciprocal basis recognising the integrity of that process he said the foreign secretary also reflected on the severe second wave of the covid19 pandemic faced by india earlier this year and welcomed the critical support from partner countries with essential supplies including the ukwhen i met my uk interlocutors i also thanked them for the level of spontaneous support we received in the form of oxygen plants concentrators cylinders one of the first flights that came in was from the uk it was a great morale booster which lifted confidence at a time when things looked despondent not for any other reason but the short period of time