Dubai’s DHA clarifies list of approved vaccines for UAE residents travelling from India

Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India, is accepted for UAE residents who are looking to travel to Dubai, the emirate’s health authority has clarified.

Dubai announced on Saturday that only UAE residents in India who have received two doses of a ‘UAE-approved vaccine’ will be allowed to travel to the emirate from Wednesday, June 23.

The list of approved vaccines in the UAE include Sinopharm, Pfizer-​BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.

Read: Dubai eases travel guidelines for passengers from India, South Africa and Nigeria

However, there has been some confusion among Indian travellers about whether Covishield would also be accepted in Dubai. Covishield and the locally produced Covaxin are the only two vaccines currently available in India.

Taking to Twitter, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) clarified that Covishield was also accepted for travel.

“Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine and COVISHIELD are the same vaccine,” it said.

@TheFaizanAnsari Thank you for contacting us. Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine and COVISHIELD are the same vaccine.

— هيئة الصحة بدبي (@DHA_Dubai) June 20, 2021

The UAE stopped all passenger flights from India on April 24 due to the deadly second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

Read: UAE to extend ban on passengers from India until July 6 – airline

India has started to see a decline in the number of new coronavirus cases in the past week, amidst rising vaccination numbers.

India’s recorded 42,667 new cases on Monday – the lowest daily tally in three months. The country also administered a record 8.5 million vaccine doses on Monday, the first day vaccines were available free to all adults. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the numbers were “gladdening” but the nation’s inoculation drive has a long way to go — about 283 million doses have been given in India, enough to cover only about 10 per cent of its population.

With inputs from Bloomberg