India delays vaccine delivery to COVAX

NEW DELHI (ANTARA) – India postponed the delivery of vaccines to the global COVAX mechanism, a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it could not make it easier to grant permission for the Covaxin vaccine.

Ahead of its Oct. 26 meeting to discuss Covaxin, the WHO said it could not “take shortcuts” in agreeing to India’s first COVID-19 vaccine.

A source told Reuters on Tuesday that India had not confirmed any supplies to COVAX, although its health minister pledged last month to fulfill its commitments to COVAX through December.

Sources familiar with the export talks declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has contracts to supply hundreds of millions of doses of a licensed version of the AstraZeneca vaccine to COVAX and other countries such as Bangladesh.

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The company’s vaccine production has more than tripled since April and reached 220 million doses per month today.

Delayed supply of COVAX could disrupt inoculation efforts in many African countries that rely on these facilities for vaccine supplies.

Indian government officials say they believe the WHO will soon approve an emergency use list for Covaxin, which accounts for 11 percent of the 990 million doses of vaccine administered in India, with the remainder mostly from AstraZeneca.

A few weeks ago, SII chief executive Adar Poonawalla told the Telegraph newspaper that the company would restart exports to COVAX in October.

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“Initially this supply will be small, but in January 2022, once we meet domestic demand … we will see large volumes coming into COVAX,” he said.

Before India halted overseas shipments of vaccines in April to meet domestic demand, India donated or sold more than 66 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including Covaxin.

The world’s biggest vaccine maker resumed exports of its COVID-19 vaccine this month for the first time since April.

India has shipped around 4 million doses of the vaccine to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Iran, but not COVAX.

Source: Reuters

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Translator: Yashinta Difa Pramudyani
Editor: Anton Santoso
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