NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has temporarily suspended all major exports of AstraZeneca coronavirus, made by the world’s largest vaccine maker, to meet domestic demand as infections increase. , according to two Reuters sources.
The measure will also affect supplies to the GAVA / WHO-supported COVAX vaccine-sharing facility through which more than 180 countries are expected to obtain doses, said one source.
To date, COVAX has received 17.7 million doses of AstraZeneca from IBS, out of the 60.5 million doses that India has sent in total and many countries rely on the program to vaccinate their citizens.
There have been no vaccine exports from India since Thursday, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website, as the country expands its own vaccination effort.
“Everything else has been left behind, for now at least,” one source said. Both sources had direct knowledge of the issue, but rejected the name because the discussions are not public.
“Without exports, nothing until the situation in India stabilizes. The government will not have such a great opportunity at a time when so many need to be vaccinated in India.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India and the SII did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SOME DELAYS Already the SII has already delayed shipments of the drug AstraZeneca to Brazil, Britain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children that procures and distributes COVAX vaccines, did not comment.
COVAX has an agreement to buy 1.1 billion doses of AstraZeneca and Novavax shots that SII is manufacturing in bulk, mainly for low- and middle-income countries.
UNICEF in Vietnam said in a statement on Wednesday that vaccine production problems had led to delays in deliveries to all countries that had to receive vaccines through COVAX.
It did not specify the origin of these delays, although Vietnam was not expected to receive doses of IBS.
The cabinet of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided this week to expand its inoculation push to include all those over 45 from April 1 and many states fighting an increase in infections have demanded that all adults are covered.
With 11.7 million cases, India has reported the largest number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil.
Currently, only the elderly and those over 45 with other health conditions are eligible to be vaccinated in India. Health and front-line workers were the first in line when India began its momentum in mid-January.
To date, India has administered more than 51 million doses, of which 47 million are the locally manufactured version of the SII AstraZeneca vaccine. The rest is the COVAXIN vaccine developed in India by Bharat Biotech.
So far, the government has asked the SII to supply around 141 million doses. The company has also accounted for almost all vaccine exports from India.
The SII plans to increase monthly production to 100 million doses from April / May, to up to 70 million now, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Reports by Krishna N. Das; additional reports from Allasdair Pal, Euan Rocha and Neha Arora; edited by Barbara Lewis