India's Serum Institute to export Covid vaccine to Bangladesh under COVAX from Nov 23
The Serum Institute of India is expected to start the export of its Covid-19 vaccine Covishield under the COVAX programme from November 23 for onward supply to Bangladesh and Nepal and two other countries.
The two other countries are Tajikistan and Mozambique, who will get the vaccine doses under the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX) programme, our New Delhi correspondent quoted official sources as saying.
Nepal will receive the first lot of Covishield on November 24.
The Indian government in October had permitted SII to export 10 lakh Covishield doses each to Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar under the "Vaccine Maitri" programme.
The SII has urged the Indian government to fast-track "Covishield movement" citing difficulties being faced in production and cold chain space-planning for other vaccines due to mounting stock of its Covid-19 jab, sources said.
A senior SII official recently communicated to the Health Ministry stating that they have 24,89,15,000 Covishield doses in stock, which is increasing by the day, they added.
"To fulfill our domestic and global supply commitments, we have to plan our production/cold chain space/human resource well in advance.
"In view of continuous increase in the stock of Covishield, we are facing a lot of difficulties in production/cold chain space/human resource planning for other life-saving vaccines," sources quoted the SII official as saying.
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