Vaccine Maitri Programme – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

Resumption of Vaccine Exports

• India has administered close to 85 crore doses of covid-19 vaccines.
• And now
• India would resume the export of COVID-19 vaccines under ‘Vaccine Maitri’ in order to fulfill the commitment towards COVAX,

• The latest supply forecast for global vaccine-sharing platform, COVAX, is that it will have distributed 1.4 billion doses by the end of 2021, less than the 2 billion doses it had aimed for earlier this year.
• Only 280.5 million doses have been given out through COVAX as of September 15.

• COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (formerly GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• COVAX coordinates international resources to enable low-to-middle-income countries equitable access to COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines.
• UNICEF is the key delivery partner, leveraging its experience as the largest single vaccine buyer in the world and working on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses, as well logistics, country readiness and in-country delivery.
• According to data from the Ministry of External Affairs, as of May 31, 6.6 crore doses of locally made vaccines have gone out of India either as grants, exports or supplies to COVAX. The last despatch was on March 29.
• India’s vaccination drive began in January for healthcare workers and was gradually expanded to those aged over 60.
• Until February, the uptake was slow.

• By February, the daily count had dipped to an all-time low of below 10,000 — something not witnessed since June 2020. Some government-backed epidemiological forecasts as well political messaging began giving out the impression that India had likely passed the worst of the pandemic.
• By mid-February however, several districts in Maharashtra started reporting a sharp spike, and by March the ascension was rapid enough for a growing public demand that vaccines be made freely available.
• By March-end, India placed “restrictions” on the export of Covishield, and stopped it by mid-April.
• The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) was expected to be the mainstay for COVAX.
• Along with the unexpected spike in demand in India following the second wave, a fire at its facility in January meant it struggled to meet its stated production target of 100 million doses a month and was languishing at around 60 million doses

• However, with the second surge and the export restrictions, COVAX and its member-partners have over the last few months expressed concerns that SII’s inability to manufacture has meant that COVAX’s commitment to supply two billion doses by the first quarter of 2022 would be impacted.
• Regarding the resumption of exports, India has said only “excess supplies” will be eligible for exports.
• Vaccine production has nearly doubled since April and could rise to over 30 crore doses by October, thus freeing up supplies.

• Several factors favour India. There is a steady decline in new cases, over half the adults have got at least one dose and, despite reports of fully inoculated people catching the infection, there is no worrying rise in severe disease or mortality.
• The supply of Covaxin has increased.
• Millions of doses of Sputnik V, Sputnik Light, Corbevax and ZyCoV-D are projected to be available in the next few months.

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