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HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINES-INDIA
India’s Serum Institute despatches first Covax vaccines
NEW DELHI, Feb 23, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – India’s Serum Institute, the world’s
largest vaccine manufacturer, despatched on Tuesday its first batch of
vaccine shots for the Covax global inoculation programme.
The global vaccine procurement and equitable distribution effort aims to
secure vaccines for at least the most vulnerable 20 percent in every country.
Covax, led by the World Health Organization and the GAVI alliance, has
struck agreements with manufacturers for two billion doses in 2021 and has
the option for another billion.
This includes 1.1 billion doses from the Serum Institute, which is
producing the AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines.
WHO Southeast Asia tweeted photos of the first shipments being loaded onto
a truck at Serum’s manufacturing facility in Pune in western India.
Serum has already supplied the Indian government with millions of doses of
the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as other poorer nations.
The company’s head Adar Poonawalla on Sunday urged other countries to be
“patient”, saying it had been instructed to prioritise its home market over
exports.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1811 hrs