Australia recognises Covaxin for travellers, days forward of WHO meet on ‘final assessment’

The Australian authorities on Monday mentioned that it’ll settle for Covaxin as a “recognized” vaccine for the aim of building a traveller’s vaccination standing.
This comes at a time when the Bharat Biotech-manufactured Covid-19 vaccine is looking for an approval from the World Health Organisation following which it could be recognised worldwide.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of the federal government of Australia, which regulates and authorises vaccines within the nation, mentioned in an announcement: “In recent weeks, the TGA has obtained additional information demonstrating these vaccines provide protection and potentially reduce the likelihood that an incoming traveller would transmit Covid-19 infection to others while in Australia or become acutely unwell due to Covid-19. The supporting information has been provided to the TGA from the vaccine sponsor and/or the World Health Organisation.”

Update: The @WHO unbiased TAG met right now & requested for addnl clarifications from the producer @BharatBiotech to conduct a last EUL risk-benefit evaluation for international use of #Covaxin. It will reconvene for the ultimate evaluation on Wednesday, 3 November if knowledge acquired quickly
— Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) October 26, 2021
It added, “Importantly, recognition of Covaxin, and BBIBP-CorV, along with the previously announced recognition of Coronavac (manufactured by Sinovac, China) and Covishield (manufactured by AstraZeneca, India), means many citizens of China and India as well as other countries in our region where these vaccines have been widely deployed will now be considered fully vaccinated on entry to Australia. This will have significant impacts for the return of international students, and travel of skilled and unskilled workers to Australia.”
Australia’s choice comes barely two days earlier than the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) meets for the ultimate evaluation of Covaxin. It had sought a number of clarifications earlier. “The Technical Advisory Group for Emergency Use Listing (TAG-EUL) is an independent advisory group that provides recommendations to WHO on whether a Covid-19 vaccine can be listed for emergency use under the EUL procedure. The TAG met today (26 October 2021) and decided that additional clarifications from the manufacturer are needed to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of the vaccine,” WHO informed The Indian Express.
Last Monday, WHO had mentioned it was anticipating “one additional piece of information” from Bharat Biotech on Covaxin, which is being examined by WHO’s specialists for grant of EUL.