India to put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine

To meet domestic demand, India has halted all major exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), Reuters reported.

The temporary decision would affect supplies to the «GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 lower-income countries are supposed to get doses from SII», the program’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters.

«We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX facility will likely face delays following a setback in securing export licenses for further doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), expected to be shipped in March and April», UNICEF said.

SII has already said that it would delay shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Morocco, Brazil, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

For the record, Morocco has acquired 8.5 million vaccines, including seven million delivered by SII and the rest from China.

In the coming days, Morocco is expected to receive 2 million doses of Sinopharm, one and a half million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in South Korea as part of the WHO Covax program, one million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V and an undetermined amount of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine developed in India.