India-made vaccines land in Africa, Ukraine as Covid surges

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Africa and Ukraine have got added to the list of 25-odd countries that have received India-made vaccines to fight the relentless onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. </p>
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India despatched its shipment of the Pune-made Covid-19 vaccines  to Africa under the WHO-backed equitable vaccine distribution network COVAX, the government said.</p>
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“Fulfilling our commitment to help the world with COVID-19 vaccines, supplies of Made-in-India vaccine commence today for Africa under COVAX facility,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said on Twitter.</p>
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The World Health Organization had earlier this month paved the way for the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine’s global launch by approving emergency use of the product produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker.</p>
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India, the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, has shipped over 17 million vaccine doses to more than two dozen countries – including around 6 million as gifts to partners such as Bangladesh and Nepal. For its own campaign, New Delhi has so far only ordered 31 million doses.</p>
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Ukraine also received its first batch of 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday, which will enable the country to start its vaccination programme.</p>
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Ukraine has lagged behind its neighbours in securing vaccines for its 41 million people, asking European Union member states for help while refusing to buy the Sputnik V vaccine from neighbouring Russia, a country with which it has strained relations.</p>
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“We will start vaccination ASAP. We need to fight COVID together,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted.</p>
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Ukraine has registered more than 1.3 million cases and 25,309 deaths.</p>
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“Now we are urgently clearing the cargo through customs and the vaccine will immediately go to the regions,” Health Minister Maksym Stepanov wrote on Facebook.</p>
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Ukraine had planned to launch mass vaccinations in mid-February through the global COVAX programme for poorer countries but the government said the roll-out was postponed due to a delay in delivery.</p>
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Ukraine has also got AstraZeneca doses produced by the Serum Institute of India, the world largest vaccine manufacturer.</p>
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The health ministry said it had agreed to buy a total of 17 million doses of Indian-made vaccines, including 15 million doses of the Novavax shot. SII will also soon start producing the Novavax vaccine mainly for poor and middle-income countries.</p>
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Stepanov last week blamed “dirty information attacks” for hampering Ukraine’s vaccine purchases after a corruption investigation was launched into the purchase of Chinese-made vaccinations through a local intermediary.</p>
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