Serum Institute to delay vaccine export to Brazil, Morocco, Saudi

New Delhi: The Serum Institute of India (SII) has told Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Morocco that further supplies of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be delayed due to surging demand at home and as it works through a capacity expansion, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The news comes as India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, is being criticised domestically for donating or selling more doses than inoculations conducted at home, despite reporting the most number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil.

India is currently seeing a second surge of cases, taking its total to about 11.6 million.

The latest delays, first reported by the Times of India daily, came to light days after Britain said it would have to slow its COVID-19 vaccine roll-out next month as SII was likely to deliver more doses later than expected.

Brazil has already received 4 million doses from SII, Saudi Arabia 3 million doses and Morocco 7 million, according to India's foreign ministry. The three countries had ordered 20 million each.

Reuters could not immediately contact representatives for the countries or determine if they had agreed to a revised delivery schedule.

SII, the single-biggest maker of vaccines, declined to comment. It has partnered with AstraZeneca, the Gates Foundation and the Gavi vaccine alliance to make up to a billion doses for poorer countries.

The source, who declined to be identified, said SII was working on expanding its monthly production to 100 million doses by April/May, from 60 million to 70 million now, suggesting supplies could improve then.

SII was originally supposed to sell vaccines only to middle- and low-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, but production issues at other AstraZeneca facilities forced it to ship to many other countries as well on the British company's behalf.

India has so far donated 8 million doses and sold nearly 52 million doses to a total of 75 countries, mainly the AstraZeneca shot made by SII. India has administered more than 44 million doses since starting its immunisation campaign in the middle of January.

Meanwhile, a recent order by the National Blood Transfusion Council has said that a person cannot donate blood for the next 28 days after taking the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

As approved in the 30th meeting of the governing body of the NBTC held on February 17, the deferral criteria for blood donation post COVID-19 vaccine was finalised as "28 days post vaccination deferral after the last dose of COVID-19 vaccination irrespective of the type of the vaccine received."

The order implies that the donor has to wait for 28 days after taking second dose of the vaccine, which means that he or she cannot donate for 56 days after taking the first jab. The order was issued by NBTC director Dr Sunil Gupta on March 5. According to the Union Health Ministry, two doses of the vaccine need to be taken by an individual 28 days apart to complete the immunisation schedule. Protective levels of antibodies are generally developed two weeks after receiving the second dose, it has said.