South Asian nations hunt for Covid shots as India curbs AstraZeneca exports

Much of South Asia has been left scrambling for Covid-19 vaccines after India halted export of doses to re-start its own inoculation drive, which ran into the ground after an explosive surge in infections left tens of thousands dead.

India's government put the brakes on exports of AstraZeneca jabs made by the Serum Institute as the country was hit by a devastating wave of Covid infections and deaths. Punit PARANJPE AFP/File

Among the countries in the region most desperate for replenishments was Nepal, struggling with 480,000 infections, 5,600 deaths and spiralling shortages.

India has so far sent 2.4 million doses to the impoverished nation, which included deliveries under Covax, a global alliance led by the World Health Organization.

“We do not have vaccines to provide second shots to people above 65 years old who were given first doses,” Nepalese health ministry spokesman Samir Adhikari said.

Nepal, which is currently reporting around 9,000 new infections daily, has sought help from China.

#Nepal is suffering badly from another big wave of #COVID19, recording some 9,000 cases a day & with around 40% of tests being positive. Nepal is a Least Developed Country with a low capacity health system. It badly needs support, including vaccine supply: https://t.co/92YFxQnMiM

— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) May 15, 2021

Bangladesh said it urgently needed 1.6 million doses of Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccines to administer second doses.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which stopped registration for inoculation on 5 May, was in touch with several potential suppliers including the US and Canada.

"If we don't get it soon, the vaccination campaign will be suspended," Bangladesh public health chief ABM Khurshid Alam told local media in capital Dhaka.

Sri Lanka was awaiting 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca it has already paid for, officials in Colombo said as they reached out to Russia and China for stocks. 

The island nation is the first South Asian country to approve the Pfizer vaccine. A national pharmaceutical lobby assured the Indian moratorium was only temporary.

“India will begin exporting soon as we get a range of vaccines coming into the market in the next couple of months,” Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association director Ashok Madan told an online journal.

India first: warns shot-maker

But India’s Serum Institute, which produces AstraZeneca shots and has so far handed out 200 million doses, said it will not be exporting vaccines until 2021-end.

“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India,” company chief executive Adar Poonawalla said in a statement earlier this week.

“We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of this year."

The warning would also affect over 40 countries in Africa who received stocks from Covax and were counting on deliveries to keep their inoculation programmes afloat.

Covax has given 65 million vaccines to 124 countries and WHO hopes the supplies will normalise after India’s record-shattering surge receded.

India promises more

India’s government meanwhile said it would produce at least two billion doses between August and December this year.

Bharat Biotech, India’s second homegrown vaccine supplier, promised to chip in.

“The company plans to produce 200 million doses of Covaxin per year in the facilities that are already operational,” the company said.

The Sputnik V vaccine was expected to reach inoculation centres soon. India received 210,000 shots after it gave its approval to the Russian product in April.

India on Thursday said it had so far given 191 million shots to 13 percent of its 1.4 billion people, celebrating it as an “achievement”.

The COVID vaccine curve is falling at a much faster rate than the infection or fatality curve in India. When I first saw this, I could not believe the data.

Vaccines hold the key to controlling this pandemic. I hope we can manufacture, procure and deliver more vaccines soon. pic.twitter.com/0EtBLpU6J3

— Bhramar Mukherjee (@BhramarBioStat) May 20, 2021

“The Covid vaccine curve is falling at a much faster rate than the infection or fatality curve in India,” tweeted Bhramar Mukherjee, an Indian-origin biostatistician at the University of Michigan.

India has so far reported 26 million cases and 291,000 Covid deaths.

Both figures are believed to be an undercount.