India sends first COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Africa under COVAX programme

India sent its first shipment of locally made COVID-19 vaccines to the WHO-backed equitable vaccine distribution network COVAX on Tuesday.

“Fulfilling our commitment to help the world with COVID-19 vaccines, supplies of Made-in-India vaccine commence today for Africa under COVAX facility,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said on Twitter.

The World Health Organization this month paved the way for the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine’s global roll-out by approving emergency use of the product produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and SK Bioscience of South Korea.

SII will also soon start producing the Novavax vaccine mainly for poor and middle-income countries.

India has shipped over 17 million vaccine doses to more than two dozen countries – including around six million as gifts to partners such as Bangladesh and Nepal.