Covid: Hull couple banned from flying to Malta over Indian vaccine

The couple were flying to visit their son who lives in Malta

A couple were prevented from flying to see their son in Malta due to a ban on travellers who had been given a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India.

Steve and Glenda Hardy, from Hull, said they were "gutted" after being stopped as they checked in at Manchester Airport on Friday.

Mrs Hardy said the airline told them they could not travel as they had been given the Indian jab.

The government said that Malta had since "amended their travel advice".

Mrs Hardy said it was their fourth attempt in a year to see their son who lives on the Mediterranean island. Previous trips had been cancelled due to the lockdown.

She said they had contacted their travel company after hearing about possible problems with the Indian vaccine, but were told "that we were perfectly OK to fly".

"We had the NHS letter as well and then we both had negative PCR tests so we thought we'd done everything," said Mrs Hardy.

"Arrived at the airport on Friday morning then to be told this wasn't the case and we wouldn't be allowed to board."

Glenda and Steve Hardy said they had both had negative PCR tests before arriving at the airport

Mrs Hardy said no warnings were issued when the couple had their first vaccine jab at Hull City Hall in March and the couple wanted answers from the government.

She said: "What's going to be done for this minority group that have had this so-called inferior vaccine?

"There's all this talk of Europe being opened up for travel for everybody, but it's not been opened up for us.

"Malta is the one place we want to go to visit family, not for a holiday, this is missing loved ones and through no fault of our own we've had a batch of the AstraZeneca that won't allow us to do this."

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK were the same product and had been approved by the European Medicines Agency "and travel should not be affected".

"This incident happened last week and the Maltese authorities have since amended their travel advice so this should not happen again," the DHSC added.