AstraZeneca vaccine export from India to Canada halted to prioritise domestic needs

The shipments of the Covid-19 vaccine from Serum Institute to Canada have been put on hold for an unspecified period as India has decided to focus on meeting the domestic needs for the jabs due to a surge in coronavirus cases. Joelle Paquette, the director-general of the Procurement Support Services Sector in Canada on Thursday said that they are expecting a delay in the shipment.

"We are working with the company on determining when the doses will arrive. We are expecting a delay in the shipment. We do not have the information [about] when we're going to get the doses," said Paquette.

However, Paquette noted that Serum Institute has committed Canada to meet its contractual obligations. As per the terms of a contract signed in February, Canada is set to receive an additional 1.5 million vaccine doses from the company by mid-May, in addition to the 500,000 doses received last month as reported by Sputnik.

Paquette said that the Canadian officials are expecting a shipment of vaccines from the COVAX facility next week. Although the World Health Organization co-led initiative does not provide a delivery schedule, she added. Ottawa has been criticized for being the only G7 country to draw from the facility that is intended to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines to developing nations. The previously delayed shipment of 600,000 Moderna vaccine doses will arrive on Friday.

The Trudeau government has faced sharp criticism for a muted vaccine rollout program, despite commitment with numerous vaccine manufacturers--this has labelled a failure of the government by opposition parties and many Canadians. As per the Johns Hopkins, 993,717 COVID cases are registered in Canada with an overall 22,993 COVID-related death cases reported.

Vaccine Maitri 

India's Vaccine Maitri programme that was started around two months ago, aims to help poor countries amid the global pandemic. In this brief period, the country has got delivered around six crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's indigenous vaccine to over 75 countries. Many countries have praised India for its efforts in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines across the world. India will likely be in a better position to export vaccinations when the other vaccines which are mostly in their lap of approval hit the market. 

(With ANI Inputs)

(Image Credits: AP/PTI)