Some 66 million doses from India have been sold or donated abroad so far – but the country has only vaccinated a tiny proportion of its huge population.<\/p>\n
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Indian government sources said sizable exports were now unlikely to restart until at least October – a longer delay than expected.<\/p>\n
SII had previously expected shipments to get back on track from June.<\/p>\n
“It was internally discussed and some countries were asked not to expect export commitments given the current Indian situation,” one anonymous Indian government source told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
It was not stated which countries could be affected.<\/p>\n
India’s spike in cases has seen a chronic shortage of beds and oxygen, with many people having to source their own drugs and oxygen for relatives on the black market.<\/p>\n
Despite being the world’s biggest vaccine producer, it has fully vaccinated only about 2.9% of its 1.35 billion population, according to health ministry data.<\/p>\n
The SII said in a statement that it had never exported vaccines at the cost of the Indian people<\/p>\n
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Other vaccine makers outside the country are being urged by the World Health Organisation to help fill the shortfall.<\/p>\n
Its director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, has warned of “vaccine apartheid” – with wealthy nations surging ahead and poorer ones left struggling with too few doses.<\/p>\n
The WHO’s Covax programme aims to provide several billion doses to poorer and less developed countries – with more than a billion of those expected from India.<\/p>\n
Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said at least 140 million doses from SII that were lined up for Covax by the end of May would now stay in India.<\/p>\n
UNICEF’s boss also urged G7 countries this week to increase donations to Covax to make up for the dip in supplies from India.<\/p>\n
The organisation estimates a shortfall of some 190 million doses by the end of June.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden said on Monday he would donate at least 20 million doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson jabs – on top of 60 million AstraZeneca doses already promised.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, India’s COVID spike is still far from over.<\/p>\n
Deaths increased by a record 4,329 to nearly 279,000, according to figures released on Tuesday. And an average of 340,000 cases were confirmed each day last week.<\/p>\n
However, there are signs of improvement in some areas – particularly the metropolis of Mumbai, where cases have fallen nearly 70% over the last week.<\/p>\n