Another blow for global vaccine rollout as India looks set to extend export ban until October

  • Date: 18-May-2021
  • Source: The Telegraph
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Saudi Arabia
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Another blow for global vaccine rollout as India looks set to extend export ban until October

India is unlikely to resume major vaccine exports until at least October, a delay that will have major ramifications for efforts to distribute vaccines to the developing world. Bumpy supply has plagued the global Covax vaccine initiative , which announced yesterday that it will hit 65 million deliveries in the coming days, 105 million fewer than initially expected. The move by India will also impact the UK, which is still waiting for an outstanding order of roughly five million coronavirus vaccines from the country. Delays have largely been triggered by India’s shift towards prioritising domestic rollout – a strategy that emerged in late March as a devastating new wave of Covid-19 took hold . Under initial supply forecasts published in February, the Serum Institute India (SII) was set to produce 240 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for Covax by July, but only a fraction of these have been shipped. According to the analytics company Airfinity, vaccine exports from India dropped from 77 per cent between mid February and mid March to just seven per cent after the ban, impacting at least 90 million vaccines earmarked for Covax. Exports were expected to resume from June, but three Indian government sources