'Export Of Covid Vaccines Very Much On Radar': Niti Aayog

India is looking to resume exports of Covid-19 doses after meeting domestic needs, the government has said.

Image: ANI

New Delhi: India halted vaccination export when the second Covid wave hit the country and created devastation. While a massive inoculation drive is active in the country, the government has said that India is looking forward to helping other countries and begin the export of vaccines.

India, the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world, is looking to resume exports of Covid-19 doses after meeting domestic needs, the government has said.

“Once our immediate need of vaccinating a significant proportion of Indian people is achieved and vaccine stockpiles are visible from multiple sources, we would then like to provide vaccines to others," said VK Paul, Niti Aayog member (health), in an interview with The Associated Press.

Paul said that a resumption of exports is still “very much on the radar". But he did not reveal when the government might resume the export.

Paul defended the Indian government's move to restrict vaccine exports in April as it battled a ferocious surge in infections. He noted that India had given away a “substantial” amount of vaccines at the start of the year as it launched its own immunization drive. “So that has to be respected and has to be recognized, as not many nations have done that,” he said.
Till January 2021, India had sent vaccine doses to 90 countries and when the drive stopped many nations were in lurch who looked for India to meet the requirements. 

When are exports expected to resume?

A Reuters report last month claimed that India is unlikely to resume major exports of vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use.

This longer-than-expected delay is set to worsen supply shortages from the global World Health Organisation-backed Covax initiative.

Local vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India had also stated that hopes to resume delivering its vaccines to Covax facility and other countries by the end of the year.

“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritize India. We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of the year," the company said in a statement.

What are India's local demands?

Currently, less than 5 per cent of India's people are fully immunized, with experts cautioning that vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect a sizable chunk of the population by the end of the year. The hope is that India will achieve a rapid increase in inoculations in the coming months. Last month, Paul told reporters that about 2 billion doses could be available by December under a roadmap that depends on India's two main suppliers -- Serum Institue of India and Bharat Biotech.

But critics have said that both the manufactures are struggling to ramp up the vaccination drive. On this, Paul said that although it was an “optimistic" projection, it's based on estimated by the manufacturers themselves and that the figure showed “there is the potential.

“We are also mindful of the fact that there are steps to be met," he said, acknowledging the hurdles that manufacturers might face in procuring raw material and other processes.

He said India can expect to see at least 740 million doses between August and December. But this includes 300 million of a vaccine that is still in late testing and not yet available. More orders will be placed in the future, he added.