Covid Shield Are Exported But Not Available In Markets For Public Use

Indian vaccines are exported but not sold in the markets

India started delivering millions of Covishield doses free of cost through shipping to different countries , namely- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bahrain, Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco, Oman, Seychelles and Sri Lanka. While the country's efforts are appreciated  internationally. But it also raised questions that why the government is not allowing the sale of the vaccine in private markets in India?

Several leading health and pharma experts such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has pleaded to the government to allow and permit the vaccines in private players to roll out, since capacity is not a problem in India and all government targets are being met.

Kiran tweeted, "We need to vaccinate 2m per day and unless private hospitals start vaccinating the general population we will struggle to keep pace with vaccine production which far outweighs utilization. Unlike other countries we don't have a shortage of supplies".

"Prioritization is a must in this process and all nations are following it. If you are healthy and below 50 years of age, you please wait and let those citizens who need it more", said by Dr. VK Paul of Niti Aayog. " In the spirit of public health response, in the spirit of our societal responsibility," Dr. Paul further added.

Currently the vaccine is being operated to one crore healthcare workers and two crore for the frontline workers. Next on the list are 27 crore people who are particularly vulnerable to the disease of virus. India is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, ahead of even China. The Pune-based vaccine which is developed by Serum Institute currently manufactures of 5,000 doses of Covishield per minute, which adds up to 50 million doses per month expectedly. By the end of the next month, this figure will rise by 30 per cent which translates to 65 million doses. At the moment, the government has procured 11 million doses to provide vaccines priority groups and meet export commitments. Another rest 50 million doses remain in bulk.

A chunk of this is now being exported to the other countries like Brazil, Morocco, South Africa and Saudi Arabia commercially. The export is happening to ensure that the precious vaccine, which has not expired till six months and the current stock of vaccines, will start expiring from the March.