Sinovac recipients get short end of the stick for travel to England

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Sinovac recipients could not enter England. This has been rectified. The error is regretted.

Travel rules released by the United Kingdom yesterday could make travel for Sinovac recipients to England more of a hassle.

Under the new rules, effective Oct 4, travellers who have had a full course of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, or Janssen vaccines will be subjected to less strict rules for travel.

Under these new rules, those who received the listed vaccines need not take a pre-departure Covid-19 test.

However, they must book, pay and take a Covid-19 test on or before day two after arriving in England. They must also complete a passenger locator form any time in the 48 hours before arriving.

They do not need to be quarantined.

The UK government website, where the rules were published, makes no mention of Sinovac, meaning that it would not qualify for the relaxed rules.

Instead, Sinovac recipients will likely have to follow the rules for unvaccinated travellers.

This includes taking a pre-departure Covid-19 test three days before travelling to England.

They will also have to be quarantined for 10 days upon arrival to England.

At present, 46 percent of vaccinated Malaysians had received the Sinovac vaccine, which was approved for use by the World Health Organisation.

It is unclear if these new rules will also apply to travel to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, for which there are separate guidelines.

The UK government website has not updated the guidelines to these three countries to include the new rules as applied to England.

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