Supplied More Vaccines Globally Than Vaccinated Our Own: India To UN
Mumbai: India has supplied more COVID-19 vaccines globally than vaccinated its own people, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu said to the UN General Assembly.
India was one of the creators of the ‘Political Declaration on Equal Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccine’, receiving the support of more than 180 UN member states.
Of India’s Deputy, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nagaraj Naidu said in an informal meeting of the General Assembly on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to persist, starting on the year 2021 began on a positive note with the global scientific community coming up with multiple vaccines to contain the pandemic.
“While the vaccine challenge has been resolved, we are now faced with ensuring the availability, accessibility, affordability and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. Lack of global cooperation and disparity in the accessibility of vaccines will affect the poorest nations the most,” Naidu said.
India has been at the forefront of the global fight against COVID-19. Naidu told the General Assembly that India would not only vaccinate 300 million of its own frontline workers in the next six months but has supplied vaccines to more than 70 countries in the process.
“In fact, as of today we have supplied more vaccines globally than have vaccinated our own people,” Naidu said.
Naidu said two of India’s vaccines, which include indigenously developed Covaxin, have already been given emergency authorization, stating that 30 more vaccine candidates are in various stages of clinical trials.
The vaccine is a version of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine produced by Covishield, the Serum Institute of India. Covaxin is an indigenously developed vaccine by pharma company Bharat Biotech.
The declaration also expresses deep concern that despite international agreements and initiatives, the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is still uneven worldwide, both among and within countries.
“Therefore, we express our deep concern that a considerable number of countries have not yet had access to COVID-19 vaccines, and stress the need for global solidarity and multilateral cooperation to increase vaccine production and distribution, on regional and global levels.”
Naidu said that as highlighted by the declaration equity in access to the vaccine is important for mitigating the impact of the pandemic.
“Vaccine inequity will defeat our collective resolve to contain the virus. The current disparity calls for solidarity and cooperation within the international frameworks such as COVAX,” he said.
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