India Puts Temporary Pause on Export of AstraZeneca Vaccine

AstraZeneca Vaccine export halted temporarily…read on to get the details…

Thursday, 25th March 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic and the fatalities resulting from it had led the world to desperately find a vaccine that could stop the deadly virus from wreaking havoc worldwide. Various pharmaceutical companies of the world and our nation have come up with a vaccine at last and now the different nations of the world including India are going by their respective set of plans with regard to the import, export, and supply chain of the covid vaccines.

Recently India has held back on some big exports of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world. The decision was taken in the wake of surging cases in the country and an anticipation that domestic needs may shoot up in the coming days.

Officials describe the move as a “temporary squeeze” that is expected to impact supplies until the end of April. Come May and the situation could improve as per sources, as at least one additional vaccine is expected to be given emergency approval.

Almost 190 countries that fall under the Covax scheme are likely to affected as a result of this. The scheme is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that vaccine doses against the coronavirus are fairly distributed among all nations.

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UNICEF wrote in an e-mail, “We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX facility will likely face delays following a setback in securing export licenses for further doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), expected to be shipped in March and April.” They also said that COVAX is communicating with the Indian government to resume shipping of vaccines at the earliest.

Neither the SII nor the foreign ministry was available for comment.

So far, India has successfully exported more than 60 million doses of vaccine, the majority being the AstraZeneca shots, to 76 countries across the world.

In the past few weeks, however, there has been a delay in the distribution of vaccines by the SII especially to countries like the UK, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

An SII spokesperson said, “We will try to supply more later, based on the current situation and the requirement for the government immunization programme in India.”

India has logged a recent spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases. On Wednesday it recorded its highest single-day swell with more than 47,000 fresh cases and 275 deaths. The government has announced vaccination eligibility will be extended for those above the age of 45 from April 1 and are expecting the demands to shoot up in the coming weeks.

According to a foreign ministry source, this hold-up is only a “temporary measure” as the country’s domestic requirements will “have to take precedence”.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV