Coronavirus: India to resume vaccine exports next month, says health minister

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said that India will resume exporting surplus coronavirus vaccines from October, PTI reported. India had halted export of Covid-19 vaccines in April after the second wave of the pandemic started to peak.

Mandaviya told reporters in Delhi that while vaccinating the country’s citizens remains the government’s top priority, it will resume exporting vaccines in the next quarter (October-December) to meet India’s commitment towards the World Health Organization-backed COVAX initiative.

COVAX works to guarantee fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for every country in the world.

The Narendra Modi government had sent nearly 6.6 crore vaccine doses to 95 countries under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative till the export was halted. The government faced criticism as several states faced shortage of vaccines amid the second wave of the pandemic.

However, in May, the Bharatiya Janata Party said that 84% of the coronavirus vaccines exported by the Centre were part of commercial and licensing liabilities of the two manufacturers, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.

In June, World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan had said that the halt on vaccine export had severely impacted inoculation in 91 countries due to shortage in supplies.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which has provided the technology for the Covishield vaccine, has not been able to compensate for…

Read more