British PM Johnson says AstraZeneca's India COVID shot should be accepted in travel schemes

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said he saw no reason why people who received Indian-made AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines should be left out of vaccine passport schemes after the European Union did not initially recognise it.

About 5 million people in Britain are thought to have had the vaccine made by Serum Institute in India, known as Covishield.

"I see no reason at all why the MHRA-approved vaccines should not be recognised as part of the vaccine passports and I'm very confident that that will not prove to be a problem," Johnson said at a joint news conference with Angela Merkel, referring to Britain's medicines regulator.