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To meet domestic demand, vaccine exports to be done in phased manner
India began vaccine exports just five days after rolling out its domestic vaccination programme on January 16. Supplies under the COVAX facility were made as soon as purchase orders were placed.
India will continue to supply Covid-19 vaccines to other countries, though the rollout will be in a phased manner and delivery schedules are expected to be calibrated in sync with domestic requirements, people familiar with developments said on Thursday.
Explaining the government’s decision to focus on the domestic vaccination programme and not to expand vaccine exports, the people said on condition of anonymity that the phased supplies to other countries will be made over the coming weeks and months.
Noting that no other country had so far matched India in supplying more than 60.5 million doses of vaccines as grants, commercial supplies and supplies to the COVAX facility, the people also made it clear that the government has not imposed a ban on vaccine exports.
As reported by Hindustan Times, the government has decided to focus on meeting the needs of the domestic immunisation programme following a sudden spike in the total number of Covid-19 cases in recent days, and the move to open up the vaccination drive to everyone above the age of 45 from April 1.
“We had said that keeping in view domestic requirements, India will continue to supply Covid-19 vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner. This position remains unchanged,” said one of the people cited above.
“We have not imposed any ban on exports of vaccines unlike many other countries,” the person added.
India remains committed to help other countries with vaccines, including through the WHO-backed COVAX facility. In view of the country’s current manufacturing capacity and the needs of the national vaccination programme, “there may be a need to calibrate the supply schedules from time to time”, the person said.
All stakeholders will have to work together to adjust the schedules as needed. “Only by such cooperation, we can collectively deal with the pandemic,” the person said.
India has so far provided vaccines to 77 countries around the world, including more than 8.5 million doses as grants, 34.1 million doses as commercial supplies and 17.8 million doses through the COVAX facility.
However, vaccine exports have slowed down as domestic demands increased over the past week. The last country to receive made-in-India vaccines was South Sudan, which was provided 132,000 doses through the COVAX facility on March 22.
India began vaccine exports just five days after rolling out its domestic vaccination programme on January 16. Supplies under the COVAX facility were made as soon as purchase orders were placed.
Future vaccine exports are also linked to the ramping up of domestic production capacities and the grant of emergency use authorisations for more vaccines. Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, plans to increase production of the AstraZeneca vaccine or Covishield to 100 million doses a month by April, up from the current level of 70 million doses.
With more than 11.7 million cases, India has reported the highest number of Coronavirus infections after the US and Brazil.
