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By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, March 30 (Reuters) - India itself has received
more than a third of the nearly 28 million Indian-made
AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered so far by
the global programme for poor countries, according to data from
UNICEF and a source.
The revelation that the largest allocation of doses India
has supplied to the COVAX programme never actually left the
country could add to criticism of India and COVAX, after New
Delhi decided this month to delay big exports of vaccines that
poor countries around the world had been counting on.
Data on UNICEF's website shows that India had received 10
million doses of vaccine from COVAX, the most of any country.
Nigeria is second with about 4 million doses. Many poor nations
entirely reliant on the programme have so far received little or
no vaccine.
Hundreds of millions of AstraZeneca doses made under license
by the Serum Institute of India form the vast bulk of the
initial order for COVAX, the global system set up to vaccinate
people mainly in poor countries. Fifty million doses were meant
to be delivered in April, but much of that order is likely to be
delayed by India's new export restrictions.
COVAX, led by the World Health Organization and the Gavi
alliance of countries, charities and companies, aims to provide
2 billion vaccine doses this year. UN children's agency UNICEF
distributes the shots.
But the programme has so far gotten off to a slow start,
with officials complaining that rich countries have hoarded most
early doses of vaccines.
The source, who had direct knowledge of the matter but was
not authorised to speak on it publicly, said India had received
its 10 million doses early, as COVAX had to wait for the vaccine
to be approved for emergency use by the World Health
Organization before it could start to distribute doses globally.
The WHO authorisation came through in mid-February, while
India approved the vaccine in January and rolled out its own
inoculation campaign on Jan. 16. The source did not specify
precisely when India received the doses from COVAX.
India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines, has reported
12 million COVID-19 cases, the most after the United States and
Brazil. So far it has exported 64 million vaccine doses, more
than the 60.4 million inoculations conducted at home. The
government is under pressure to step up the domestic vaccine
programme.
India's health ministry, Gavi and UNICEF did not immediately
respond to requests for comment for this story.
The SII has an agreement with COVAX to supply its licensed
version of the AstraZeneca drug, which it sells as Covishield,
to 64 countries.
India's move to suspend major vaccine exports has alarmed
many countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. The head of the
Africa Centres for Disease Control, a continent-wide body, said
last week he felt "helpless".
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das
Additional reporting by Euan Rocha
Editing by Peter Graff)
