New Delhi, Oct 22 (FN Agency) UNICEF on Friday welcomed India’s decision to resume the export of COVID-19 vaccines even as it congratulated the country for crossing the landmark of 100 crore jabs. “We particularly look forward to hearing details about the expected timeline and volumes of supplies to be made available by the Government of India to the COVAX Facility,” it said. “UNICEF India congratulates the Government of India on reaching the milestone of 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered so far. We welcome the strides that India has made in recent months to ramp up vaccinations,” a UNICEF statement said. Welcoming India’s decision to resume vaccine export, it said this is very encouraging news for countries that need to urgently fast-track their vaccination campaigns to priority groups, especially health and frontline workers.
The UN agency said India, which has gained experience of conducting a massive vaccination programme, can assist other nations with training and guidance for an efficient rollout of vaccination drives there. “Now more than ever, we need greater solidarity to expand vaccine coverage across South Asia and the world. We welcome this step by India and call on well-supplied countries to donate surplus doses to low and middle-income countries to expand vaccine coverage,” it noted. UNICEF said low and middle-income countries need access to COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible. The World Health Organization’s report states that high-income countries have administered 35 times more vaccine doses than low-income countries. India suspended its vaccine export in April amid the devastating second wave of Covid the country faced. The decision was taken to divert all the supplies to vaccinate the vulnerable population on priority. As new infection numbers came down and vaccination coverage expanded, the Centre decided to resume the export of vaccines.