India unlikely to expand export of COVID vaccines as focus shifts to domestic demand

KEY STORY

• India will focus on meeting the domestic demand for coronavirus vaccines in view of a spike in COVID-19 infections in several states and it will not expand export of vaccines for next few months, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.

• They, however, said all commercial contracts and export commitments will be honoured and that India will continue to help countries around the world to deal with the pandemic.

• So far, India has supplied 60.4 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to around 80 countries.

• The total supplies include vaccine doses sent as grant assistance, under commercial contract and through COVAX, which is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

• The people said India will fulfil the existing commitments made to various countries and exports will depend on domestic demand.

• “There will be no expansion of exports for next few months. The situation will be reviewed after around 2-3 months as we are focusing on ramping up vaccine production,” said one of the people cited above.

• India started supplying the vaccine doses to foreign countries on January 20.

• The first countries to receive such vaccines were from the neighbourhood.

• The government has already announced that people who are 45 and older can be vaccinated from April 1.

• It is ramping up the nationwide inoculation drive as the COVID-19  cases have increased in many states.

• India recorded 47,262 fresh coronavirus cases in a day, the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 1,17,34,058, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

CONCLUSION

• It also said a new “double mutant” variant of COVID-19 was detected in Delhi, Maharashtra and some other places.

• Maharashtra reported 31,855 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, its highest ever single-day jump since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, a health official said in Mumbai.

• Delhi reported 1,254 cases, highest daily increase in over three months, according to the state Health Department.