India temporarily stops exporting Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

India has put a temporary hold on all exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vccine made by the Serum Institute of India. There are may reasons behind this action as India decided to use the production as the domestic demand is increasing.

Also some sources explained how this is affecting GAVI/WHO-backed COVAX vaccine-sharing through more than 180 countries. India has shipped 60.5 million doses in total and COVAX also had received 17.7 million AstraZeneca doses untill now.

According to foreign ministry’s website there was no exporting of vaccines since last Thursday. Already shipments to the Brazil, Britain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia delayed by the company.

The SII plans to increase monthly production of vaccines to 100 million doses from April this year.