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Geneva / New Delhi / Addis Ababa (dpa) - There are significant delays in the worldwide delivery of corona vaccines due to export restrictions in India.
The United Nations solidarity vaccination program Covax expects that deliveries planned for March and April will not arrive as expected, as a spokeswoman for the vaccination initiative Gavi said in Geneva on Thursday.
The Pan-African Health Authority Africa CDC expressed concern that the delays could seriously affect the fight against the coronavirus in Africa.
India is one of the main suppliers for Covax.
The country is generally known as the world's pharmacy, producing more than half of all vaccines in the world.
Covax wanted to deliver a total of 237 million vaccine doses from the beginning of March to May - more than 100 million of them were manufactured by the Serum Institute in India.
The delays are said to affect tens of million cans.
The UN children's aid organization Unicef confirmed expected delivery delays, but could not provide any information on the extent.
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The background to this is that India itself is claiming the production of the vaccine.
"Delays in the issuance of export licenses for vaccine doses manufactured by the Serum Institute are due to the increased demand for Covid-19 vaccine in India," said Gavi.
Gavi representatives negotiated with India about the fastest possible delivery of the promised cans.
According to experts, India, a country of 1.3 billion people, is currently heading for a new wave of corona.
A few weeks ago, fewer than 10,000 corona infections were recorded per day, most recently more than 50,000.
In addition, there is fear of a new Corona variant in India.
In analyzes from the state of Maharashtra, two mutations were found in many samples, which are associated with a greater risk of infection and which enable the virus to bypass the human immune response.
According to the information, these mutations do not match the virus variants known to date.
The head of the pan-African health authority Africa CDC, John Nkengasong, said it is very problematic for Africa if the delivery of vaccine doses is delayed.
«It seems that we are approaching a third wave.
Without quick access to vaccines, we will continue to face challenges, people will be killed, and economies will continue to struggle. "
The delays could seriously affect the fight against the coronavirus in Africa.
He felt helpless, said Nkengasong and warned: “There is no reason to wage a war over vaccines.
Then we will all lose. "
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Nkengasong also reacted to developments in Europe.
The EU Commission had tightened an export control introduced on February 1 on Wednesday.
Manufacturers who do not comply with EU treaties can be prohibited from exporting.
Many developing countries, including several African countries, can only afford vaccines to a limited extent or not at all and are therefore dependent on deliveries from Covax.
According to the government in New Delhi, almost 18 million vaccine doses made in India have so far been delivered to Covax.
Another 40 million cans were sold or given away outside the program at low prices abroad.
In India itself, 50 million vaccine doses have been administered.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210325-99-970246 / 2
Covax allocation according to plan from early March