India stops export of vaccine to other countries till October

New Delhi : The second wave of Corona has intensified the vaccination drive in India but many states are claiming vaccine shortages. Opposition parties are accusing the Center that the government sent vaccines to foreign countries and it is not paying attention to the vaccination campaign in the country. Now sources have stated that the government will not export any major consignment of Corona vaccine until the end of October this year and the vaccine will be used in the country. However, this is expected to cause considerable damage to ‘Covax’, an initiative to supply vaccines worldwide.

India was going through the worst phase due to Corona crisis and it had stopped the export of vaccine only last month. So far India has exported 6.6 crore doses of the vaccine. However, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and many African countries are now struggling to get the vaccine after India’s vaccine exports stopped.

According to the news agency Reuters, sources said that India will now give prominence to vaccination in its country as the total number of infected here has crossed 25 million and the death toll is setting new records daily.

“This discussion has taken place inside and some countries have been told not to expect the promise of vaccine export to be unfulfilled in the current situation,” a source said. However, the source did not even say which countries are those who have been informed about the delay in vaccine supply.

Two other sources said how long the vaccine exports from India will resume, depending on how soon India will be able to control the critical situation created by the second wave. However, the Ministry of External Affairs has not yet made any statement regarding this.

A spokesperson for Serum Institute of India said that there is currently a focus on vaccine supply in India. It was earlier estimated that vaccine exports to other countries would start from June.