The UK's vaccination efforts will be paralysed from next month because the Indian Government is temporarily holding exports, according to the CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, whose company is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine in India.
"It has nothing to do with the SII. It is up to the Indian Government allowing more doses to the UK," Mr Poonawalla told The Telegraph, who confirmed that 5 million doses of the Oxford vaccine had already been delivered to the UK in early March.
The second batch of 5 million further doses that the SII has pledged to the UK will only be delivered once the company was given the green light by New Delhi, which is deliberating how to slow a concerning resurgence in new daily Covid-19 cases, according to a source.
The Indian Government is considering whether it needs to stockpile more vaccines to expand its vaccination programme which has so far been limited to those over the age of 60 and those over the age of 45 with comorbidities.
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