France will allow international travellers who have taken the Covishield vaccine into the country from Sunday.

The development comes at a time France is tightening border checks to control the spread of the Delta variant (of coronavirus) and protect hospitals, according to a statement from the Prime Minister on Saturday.

The move to accept visitors vaccinated with Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, came after a global outcry over the fact that the European Union’s Covid-19 certificate only recognises the AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in Europe.

Several other EU countries already accept the Indian version, which is also being used in the UK and Africa. The varied rules from each country have further complicated this summer’s travel season.

France still doesn’t recognise Chinese or Russian vaccines but only those authorised by the EU drug regulator and made by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

Starting Sunday, France will also start requiring anyone who isn’t vaccinated and arriving from Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Greece or Cyprus to present a negative test report less than 24 hours old to cross French borders.

Tunisia, Indonesia, Cuba and Mozambique have been added to France’s “red list” of countries with high virus risk, according to Saturday’s statement. However, France will now accept travellers from any red list country if they are fully vaccinated.

France also shortened the time frame for considering a person fully vaccinated after the second dose to one week instead of two.

As infections climb again, French President Emmanuel Macron this week ordered all health workers to get vaccinated by September 15 and announced that special Covid-19 passes would be required in all restaurants, bars, hospitals, shopping malls, trains, and planes. To get a pass, people must be fully vaccinated, have recently recovered from the virus, or have a fresh negative virus test.

The measures have prompted a record number of people to sign up for vaccinations but have also fuelled anger among some groups and protests are planned in various French cities on Saturday against them.