In mid-September, the UK government announced major changes to the country’s international travel and health rules - including its plans to formally recognise a number of vaccines from overseas countries.
Prior to late July, only UK-administered vaccines were officially recognised.
On 28 July, it was announced that the vaccine status of fully jabbed travellers from the US and European Union would also be recognised from 2 August onwards (provided they had received two doses of the same vaccine).
On 17 September, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed that, from October, it will increase the number of countries from which travellers’ vaccination certification will be recognised.
“From 4 October, England will welcome fully vaccinated travellers from a host of new countries – who will be treated like returning fully vaccinated UK travellers – including 17 countries and territories such as Japan and Singapore, following the success of an existing pilot with the US and Europe,” read a DfT statement.
So which countries’ vaccine certificates are now recognised?
Here’s everything you need to know.
Which countries’ vaccines are currently recognised by the UK?
From 4 October, those who have had two shots of a vaccine (or one shot of the Janssen vaccine) from the following countries - the final dose of which was administered at least two weeks prior to arrival - will be treated as fully vaccinated in the UK:
- Andorra
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahrain
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Republic of Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominica
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Israel
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- San Marino
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- The UAE
- The UK
- The US
- Vatican City
This means travellers from the above countries are treated the same as UK citizens, and can avoid quarantine when arriving in the UK from any country not on the red list.
For the purposes of vaccinations received abroad, the government is recognising Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen (J&J).
Those jabbed with two different doses of these vaccines – for example, a person with one dose of Oxford AstraZeneca and one dose of Moderna – will be regarded as fully vaccinated.
What is the status of people vaccinated in other nations?
They are regarded by the UK as unvaccinated and must follow the rules for such travellers, taking a pre-departure test, quarantining for 10 days when arriving from countries not on the red list, and taking a day two and day eight PCR test. Travellers in England may opt to pay for an extra test on day five of self-isolation which, if negative, allows them to end quarantine early.
The decision by the UK government not to recognise Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Janssen jabs administered in India, anywhere in Africa and more than 100 other countries has angered many people who want to travel to Britain.
