India shifts from mass vaccine exporter to importer, worrying the world

GBNEWS24 DESK//

After gifting and selling tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad, India suddenly finds itself short of shots as new infections surge in the world’s second-most populous country.

India breached 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, and is trying to inoculate more of its population using domestically produced shots.

Facing soaring cases and overflowing hospitals after lockdown restrictions were eased, it also abruptly changed the rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer.

It will import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting this month to cover as many as 125 million people.

The reversal in fortunes could hamper not only India’s battle to contain the pandemic, but also vaccination campaigns in more than 60 poorer countries, mainly in Africa, for months.

The COVAX programme, backed by the World Health Organization and Gavi vaccine alliance, aims at equitable vaccine access around the world, and is relying heavily on supplies from India, Asia’s pharmaceutical powerhouse.

But so far this month India has only exported around 1.2 million vaccine doses. That compares with 64 million doses shipped abroad between late January and March, according to data from the foreign ministry.

An official with knowledge of India’s vaccine strategy said that available shots would be used domestically while the country faced an “emergency situation”.

“There is no commitment to other countries,” he said.

India’s foreign ministry, which oversees vaccine deals with other countries, said last week that Indian demand would dictate the level of exports.

Resulting shortages are already being felt in some countries in the COVAX scheme, and a U.N. health official involved in the vaccine rollout in Africa said: “To be so reliant on one manufacturer is a massive concern.”

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said earlier this month delays in supplies from India could be “catastrophic”.