Historical moment: India’s first wave of vaccine shipments for COVAX Facility leave Pune
India’s manufacturing base is playing a critical role to close the gap between richer and poorer countries,
The journey of the COVAX vaccines has started from India on February 25, with UNICEF beginning to ship vaccine doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India to several low and lower-middle income countries.
To do this, India’s manufacturing base is playing a critical role to close the gap between richer and poorer countries, and in ensuring that vaccines are produced and rolled out to low and lower middle-income countries around the world.
Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF India Representative was at the Serum Institute of India, Pune speaking about UNICEF shipping first COVAX vaccines from Mumbai and about the COVAX partnership.
“I visited the Serum Institute of India to observe the initial shipping operations of the vaccines through the COVAX partnership. Truly inspiring! The shipment of the first batch of COVID vaccines from India through the COVAX Facility is historic! It is a major step in the global effort to beat this pandemic and a landmark achievement towards global equitable access to these lifesaving vaccines,” said Dr Haque.
