Coronavirus: AstraZeneca vaccine’s global roll-out woes mount as India halts exports

The Serum Institute of India’s move comes as the EU mulls giving member states greater scope to block vaccines being exported outside the bloc

Denmark will prolong its suspension of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots by three weeks amid blood clot concerns

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A nurse prepares to administer the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Warsaw on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:00pm, 25 Mar 2021Updated: 9:00pm, 25 Mar 2021

The roll-out of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, the shot much of the world is relying on to beat the pandemic, faced further complications on Thursday as India halted exports of the vaccine and Europe discussed its own export controls.

India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Anglo-Swedish firm’s vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, two sources said.

That could delay supplies to dozens of lower-income countries also relying on SII production under the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme backed by the World Health Organization.

“We understand that deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the Covax facility will likely face delays …,” the programme’s procurement and distributing partner Unicef said.

India’s move comes as the European Union meets on Thursday to consider giving member states greater scope to block vaccines being exported outside the bloc, much of which is struggling to bring infections down and ramp up immunisation campaigns.

The proposal would apply to all vaccines including AstraZeneca’s, on which the EU had originally been relying to meet a goal of inoculating 70 per cent of its adult population by this summer.