India Begins COVID-19 Vaccine Export Wednesday

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>India begins COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that <strong>India<&sol;strong>&comma; one of the world’s biggest drugmakers&comma; will start exports of COVID-19 vaccines as early as Wednesday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The essence&comma; as India begins COVID-19 vaccine export&comma; is to paving the way for many mid- and lower-income countries to secure supplies of the easy-to-store Oxford&sol;AstraZeneca vaccine&comma; OpenLife Nigeria learnt&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The first batch of exports will be shipped to the tiny nation of Bhutan&comma; said the officials&comma; who asked not to be named as no formal announcement has yet been made in India&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Two million doses of the Covishield vaccine&comma; developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India &lpar;SII&rpar;&comma; will also be despatched to Bangladesh on Thursday&comma; said the officials briefed on the plans&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Bangladesh’s foreign ministry confirmed the plan&comma; saying a special flight from India carrying the first consignment will land in Dhaka on Thursday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Bangladesh will receive 2 million doses of Oxford-Astrazenca Covid-19 vaccines from India as a gift on Jan&period; 21&comma;” it said in a statement&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;SII&comma; the world’s largest maker of vaccines&comma; did not immediately respond to a request for comment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Just recently&comma; OpenLife Nigeria learnt that SII disclosed that it soon expected emergency use authorisation from the World Health Organization &lpar;WHO&rpar; for the Oxford&sol;AstraZeneca shot&comma; which it has been licensed to make for dozens of low- and middle-income countries&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;That would pave the way for SII to begin supplies to the WHO-backed COVAX initiative aimed at fairly distributing COVID-19 shots across the world&period; In this direction&comma; India begins the exports as a lead in that initiative&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Oxford&sol;AstraZeneca vaccine&comma; which can be stored at refrigerator temperature&comma; is widely viewed as a more viable option for many poorer nations than shots from Pfizer and Moderna which need to be stored at very low temperatures&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;India has received requests from dozens of nations&comma; including urgent appeals from Brazil&comma; to begin exports of the vaccine from the SII centre in the western city of Pune&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government&comma; however&comma; wanted to roll out the vaccination drive at home before launching exports&comma; one of the sources said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;India began giving shots of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Oxford&sol;<&sol;a>AstraZeneca vaccine&comma; as well as another developed by Bharat Biotech&comma; to health workers on Saturday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The country plans to start exporting Bharat Biotech’s vaccine at a later stage&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Another source said landlocked Bhutan would get its Oxford&sol;AstraZeneca shots free&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We will begin from tomorrow&comma; other neighbouring countries will follow soon&comma;” the source said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sri Lanka&comma; Nepal&comma; Myanmar and the Maldives have all made requests for early delivery of vaccines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;