US To Redirect Critical Vaccine Making Supplies To India To Help Produce Additional 20 Million Covishield Doses

In a boost for the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in India, the United States (US) has decided to redirect its own orders of critical vaccine manufacturing supplies to India which will help the country produce additional 20 million doses of Covishield, reports Times of India.

The development was announced by Dean Thompson, who is the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the US government.

It should be noted that the White House had earlier also announced that the US will be sending out 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to other nations starting from June 2021. In India, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University is manufactured and sold by Pune based Serum Institute of India under the name of Covishield.

The development comes at a time when Union External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar is in the US, engaging with the top brass of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Dr Jaishankar has held one-to-one interactions with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and also US’ Trade Representative Katherine Tai.