By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, March 27 (Reuters) - A World Health Organization
(WHO)-backed programme to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer
countries expects that the Serum Institute of India (SII) will
resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in
May, UNICEF said on Saturday.
"Deliveries of SII/AZ vaccine are expected to begin fully
again by May, with catch-up deliveries to reach every
participant’s full allocation up to May, accelerating
thereafter," a UNICEF spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.
The spokeswoman added that the programme, known as COVAX,
was in talks with New Delhi to secure "some supply" in April
too. COVAX was expecting a total of 90 million doses from SII in
March and April, of which it has received about 28 million.
UNICEF is the distributing partner of the programme, run
with the GAVI vaccine alliance.
India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, said on Friday it
would make domestic COVID-19 inoculations a priority as
infections surge, and had told international buyers of its
decision.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on
Friday that India's decision was "understandable" but that the
WHO was in talks so it continues providing doses to other
countries.
So far COVAX has delivered 32 million vaccine doses to 61
countries, but 36 countries still await vaccines to start
inoculations, Tedros said.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das
Editing by Frances Kerry)