Form of words:
New Delhi: Official sources said on Thursday that the central government has allowed commercial export of Covishield and Covaxin in view of the adequate stock of COVID-19 vaccines available with the states and union territories as well as manufacturers.
However, the quantity of COVID vaccines to be exported will be decided by the government every month to ensure that there is no shortfall in domestic availability.
India recently resumed supply of COVID vaccine to the UN-backed COVAX, the government allowed Serum Institute of India (SII) to export 5 million doses of Covisheeld to Nepal, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Mozambique.
The Covishield shipment will reach Nepal and Tajikistan this week.
“More than 22.72 crore remaining and untapped COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and union territories. Vaccine production is increasing and there will be additional supplies.
“Keeping this in mind, it has been decided to allow commercial export of Covishield and Covaxin,” an official source told PTI.
Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at SII, had recently told the Union health ministry that the Pune-based firm has 24,89,15,000 doses of Covishield and the stock is rising every day.
The official, however, insisted, “The quantity of vaccines to be exported will be decided by the government on a monthly basis to ensure that domestic availability is not hampered in any way.”
The government is expected to receive around 31 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin from SII and Bharat Biotech in December, while Zydus Cadila can supply around 20 million jabs of its three-dose Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D by that time.
The government has recently allowed the export of 20 million doses of Covovax, a COVID-19 vaccine produced in India by SII, to Indonesia. According to official sources, the jab is yet to be approved for emergency use in the country.
The first consignment of Kovovax will reach Indonesia this week.
subscribe our channel youtube And Wire
Why the news media is in trouble and how you can fix it
India needs free, unbiased, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it is facing many crises.
But the news media itself is in trouble. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, crude prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the best young journalists, columnists and editors to work for it. Smart and thinking people like you will have to pay a price to maintain this quality of journalism. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can Here,