Form of words:
New Delhi: India is stockpiling Covid vaccine doses with 250 million shots and the development of three more vaccines, a government official said on Wednesday, which will go some way to help the country meet its export commitments.
Most of these doses will be given to neighboring countries and will also meet India’s commitments to the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative for poor countries, said VK Paul, a member of the government think-tank that advises Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Covishield makes up the bulk of the 250 million doses, while the rest are Covaxin, Paul said. He added that many more vaccines are under development and are likely to get statutory approval by the end of the year.
“India will play an important role in providing vaccines to the world by 2022,” he told reporters.
The news comes as India prepares to achieve its milestone of receiving the first billion vaccination doses next week, a government official told reporters earlier. According to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, about a fifth of the 1.49 billion population is fully vaccinated.
India last month said it would resume vaccine shipments in October, nearly six months after the government halted exports due to a second wave of infections. local media informed of That exports to Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh have already started, which have received one million doses each.
Iran also received one million doses of Covaxin from the Indian Embassy in Tehran tweeted Last week, it indicated that Modi’s vaccine diplomacy is in full swing.
India agreed to restart exports just before Modi began his US visit in September, including a one-on-one meeting with the Quad group, which is made up of Australia, the US and Japan. Modi told his counterparts that under this partnership, 8 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine will be available by the end of October.
Modi said during that meeting in Washington that the Quad countries would pay for the vaccine and that India would bear a certain part of the cost.
Here are some other details of Paul’s briefing with reporters in New Delhi:
- According to three studies, a third wave of infections is unlikely in India.
- The government is keeping a close watch on any new wave of cases and has stepped up facilities, including pediatrics.
- The science behind booster shots is incomplete and there is no clear picture yet.-bloomberg
Read also: India among 50% of countries where classes are not entirely conducted in-person: UNICEF-backed study
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