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India to resume vaccine exports but no SL orders yet 

21 Sep 2021

  • India pledge to help neighbours/Covax with 300 m plus doses 
BY Buddhika Samaraweera  India is set to resume the export of Covid-19 vaccines in the quarter commencing from October 2021 but Sri Lanka has not yet placed any orders for vaccines, The Morning learnt. The Health Minister of India Mansukh L. Mandaviya had recently told the media that India would resume exports of Covid-19 vaccines in the latter quarter of the year, prioritising the global vaccine sharing platform Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax), and neighbouring countries first.  When The Morning contacted the Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals State Ministry Secretary, Dr. S.K. Rathnayake to inquire as to whether the State Ministry has ordered Covid-19 vaccines from India with this recent development, he said that no such order has been placed so far.  The Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine, manufactured in India at the Serum Institute, was the first Covid-19 vaccine administered in Sri Lanka in late January this year. However, since the deadly second wave of the pandemic in India and the Indian Government choosing to retain vaccines for domestic use, Sri Lanka had been struggling to find sufficient vaccines for the second dose of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine. Thereafter, in late July, about one million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines that were manufactured in Japan arrived in the country to fulfil the second dose requirement.  India is the world’s biggest manufacturer of Covid-19 vaccines but temporarily halted the export of vaccines in April 2021 to focus on inoculating its own population as Covid-19 infections increased exponentially.  Stating that the country’s monthly vaccine output has more than doubled and is set to quadruple to over 300 million doses next month, Health Minister of India, Mansukh L. Mandaviya has said that only excess supplies would be exported. “Total production could top one billion in the last three months of the year as new vaccines from companies such as Biological E are likely to be approved,” he added.  He also said that they would help other countries and also fulfil their responsibility towards the Covax facility.


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