India puts Covax on hold, focuses on jabs

India has decided not to share Covid vaccines with the rest of the world through the international vaccine alliance spearheaded by the World Health Organization and Gavi, Covax, till all the adults are immunised in the country, people in the know told ET. In March, India imposed a hold on all major exports of Covid vaccines affecting deliveries to the Covax facility.Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, was the major supplier to Covax. In May this year, when Covid cases started to surge in India, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla had said that the SII will continue to scale up vaccine manufacturing and prioritise India.However, he hoped to restart delivering doses to Covax and other countries by the end of 2021. As per the recent discussions being held in the government, it has been decided that India will “continue to pull back supplies to Covax till all its adults are vaccinated,” a senior government official told ET. 86078822“The country will continue to pull back supplies to Covax till all its adults are vaccinated,” added the official.The Covax facility was created last year to ensure Covid vaccines were made available around the world, with richer countries subsidising costs for poorer nations. The scheme hoped to distribute enough vaccines to protect at least 20% of the population in 92 low-or medium-income countries. Covax is run by a number of international organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children's charity, Unicef.Its initial goal was to provide two billion doses of vaccines worldwide in 2021, and 1.8 billion doses to 92 poorer countries by early 2022.According to a September 8 statement by Covax, 240 million doses have been delivered to 139 countries in six months. According to its latest Supply Forecast, Covax expects to have access to 1.425 billion doses of vaccine in 2021. Of these doses, approximately 1.2 billion will be available for the lower income economies participating in the Covax Advance Market Commitment (AMC).

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3hj7AUQ