India’s Foreign Ministry is working on a plan to supply more than 160 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 60 countries and to Unicef by the end of March, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The vaccine supplies include around 10 million doses in giveaways, which in the first round were focused on the sprawling neighborhood of India.
India has received formal and informal requests for the vaccine from 60 countries that are home to more than a fifth of humanity, a foreign ministry official said.
Based on available figures, the Serum Institute of India has already shipped 14.5 million doses of the vaccine to 11 countries. In addition to neighboring countries, recipients of the injection developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford include Brazil and Morocco, which were supplied commercially. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to send a total of 33 million doses this month.
“There are as many as 30 countries that have written to India formally and an equal number that have requested the vaccine informally. Then there are countries like Afghanistan that have done neither, but India has committed to supply. We are planning to ship 10 million to Africa alone. The 30 countries that have formally requested the vaccine from India are Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Serbia, Guyana (CARICOM), Egypt, Morocco, Maldives, Mauritius, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Brazil, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, Mongolia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Kenya, ”said a senior government official .
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In February, according to documents seen by HT, India intends to send 60 million doses to friendly countries around the world, from Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Ocean to Nauru, the island nation. smallest in the world near Australia. In March, HT learned that India expects to ship almost 80 million doses. Almost half of the 160 million doses would be shipped through Unicef.
One official said the figures are provisional and could change once final regulatory approvals arrive.
In addition to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is marketed as Covishield in India by the Pune-based Serum Institute, India is using Covaxin developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. This vaccine has not yet reached the end point of the trial to determine the efficacy rate.
India launched its national Covid-19 vaccination program on January 16, and almost simultaneously began shipping supplies to neighboring countries and others, both as gifts and for commercial purposes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised this week to keep the flow of vaccines going. “Today, by sending vaccines to various countries … we are also saving the lives of citizens of other countries,” Prime Minister Modi said in his address to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.
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When UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres described India’s vaccine production capacity as “the best asset the world has,” Foreign Minister S Jaishankar immediately promised that New Delhi would deliver: ” You can count on the Pharmacy of the World to help you overcome the Covid-19 Challenge ”.
India, home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, has vaccinated nearly 3.5 million healthcare workers and aims to inoculate 300 million people, including healthcare workers, frontline workers and those at high risk until July-August.
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