India turns from COVID vaccine exporter to importer

After gifting and selling tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad, India is running low on vaccines as new infections rise in the world’s second-most populous country.

on Thursday (Apr 15), India surpassed 200,000 daily infections for the first time and is attempting to immunize a large population with domestically developed vaccines.

Facing soaring cases and overflowing hospitals after lockdown restrictions were eased, it also abruptly changed the rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer.

It will import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine starting this month to cover as many as 125 million people.

The reversal in fortunes could hamper not only India’s battle to contain the pandemic but also vaccination campaigns in more than 60 poorer countries, mainly in Africa, for months.

The COVAX program, backed by the World Health Organization and Gavi vaccine alliance, aims at equitable vaccine access around the world and is relying heavily on supplies from India, Asia’s pharmaceutical powerhouse.

But so far this month India has only exported around 1.2 million vaccine doses. That compares with 64 million doses shipped abroad between late January and March, according to data from the foreign ministry.