India will have excess COVID-19 vaccine doses to fully resume its Vaccine Maitri initiative which had to be suspended in April.

Over the past one week, the country has sent 10 lakh vaccine doses each to Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Iran, people in the know told ET. According to the production figures analyzed by the health ministry, it will receive 28 crore vaccine doses in October, which will include around 22 crore doses of Covishield and 6 crore doses of Covaxin.

This will be able to cover the requirement in the country and spare about 1-2 crore doses for supply to other countries.In November, availability of over 30 crore vaccine doses is expected. A senior health ministry official said that this month, they have a target of surpassing 100 crore doses, therefore, the domestic demand is the priority. The official added that they expect to receive more than 30 crore doses next month and will expand the Maitri initiative.

India announced on September 20 that it will resume the Vaccine Maitri initiative. Sources have stated that external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, has shared a list of about 25 countries that have asked for vaccines, to health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Another government official told ET that priority will be given to our neighboring countries, considering the fact that we have porous borders with some countries and we will be safe if the neighbours are safe.

Vaccine doses will be provided to Sri Lanka and Bhutan. The official also said that though there has been a change in regime in Afghanistan, India will not change its position on keeping the neighborhood safe. So, if Afghanistan asks for vaccines and the doses are available, it will be considered. 

Through Vaccine Maitri, India supplied 6.64 crore doses to 95 countries from January to April. Around 1.07 crore doses were given free of cost, 3.58 crore were sold commercially, and 1.98 crore were given to the Covax initiative.

The initiative was started on January 20, when 1.5 lakh vaccine doses were sent to Bhutan and one lakh doses to Maldives within four days of initiation of Indias vaccination drive. 

Source: ET Healthworld