Government allows Serum Institute to export 50 lakh Covishield doses under COVAX to four nations

The Union government has allowed the Serum Institute of India (SII) to export 50 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield under the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine programme to Nepal, Tajikistan and Mozambique, official sources said.

In addition to these three countries, the SII will also export Covishield to Bangladesh under COVAX, they said.

The SII will commence COVID vaccine export under the COVAX programme from 23rd November and Nepal will receive the first lot of Covishield on 24th November.

The government, earlier in October, had permitted the SII to export 10 lakh Covishield doses each to Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme.

In a recent communication to the Union Health Ministry, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII is learnt to have informed that the Pune-based firm has manufactured stock of 24,89,15,000 doses of Covishield and that the stock is increasing day by day.