India’s biggest vaccine shortage has been reported to last for months

The director general of the Indian Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has warned that the shortage of property will last for months after the Narendra Modi government prepares a second devastating wave of coronavirus.

Adar Poonawall told the Financial Times that the severe shortage of vaccines in India will continue through July as production is expected to rise to a dose of around 60m-70m per month to around 100m.

Poonawall said the government took it “quietly” in January when new cases of coronavirus were rejected. “Everyone felt that India was really starting to turn around in the pandemic,” he said.

But India has been hit by the latest wave of infections, with 400,000 new cases registered on Sunday and several cities and states blocked, including the capital New Delhi.

Prime Minister Modi has been accused of mass elections and Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival that attracts millions of people, a religious festival that attracts millions of people, has been a courtesy and a priority for domestic politics in the face of the health crisis.

India has ingested less than 2 percent of the population, and many states have said they are out of the coups, forcing plans to roll back their inoculation campaign on Saturday to all 18-year-olds or older.

Poonawall said the Serum Institute is short of vaccines and has been condemned by politicians and critics, noting that the government, not business, was concerned with politics. The company has also been accused of charging state governments and hospitals higher prices than those offered to the central government. Poonawalla prices fell following criticism.

“They have victimized me very unfairly and wrongly,” he said, adding that he had not promoted the capacity before, “because there was no order, we didn’t think we should make more than 1 billion doses a year.”

New Delhi requested 21 million vaccines from the Serum Institute, which is undergoing an Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine and will supply most doses in the country by the end of February, but gave no indication when it would buy more. An additional 110m dose was requested in March when infections began to rise sharply.

Last month the government gave the company a loan to convert a production line into more vaccines.

“We have done this right now to address the ridiculous lack that the nation and, of course, the world now has,” Poonawall said.

The government also in April he launched a push to secure more jab foreign suppliers. He gave emergency approval for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and said he would do the same with those approved in the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

However, local manufacturers who have partnered with Sputnik V say there are months left to distribute it at home.

Experts say the government should invest in manufacturing capacity and get enough vaccines before the pandemic.

“It’s absolutely essential to have to deliver something, it makes good sense,” said Chandrakant Lahariya, a public health expert in New Delhi, adding that the government has not had a transparent vaccination policy.

“There’s definitely not a lot of information in the public domain,” he said.

Poonawalla spoke to Financial TImes in London, where he stayed with his wife and children before the UK imposed a ban on flights to India. He said he had received threats from politicians and business people demanding vaccines, but that he was not there due to security concerns in London. The Indian government last week gave Poonawall more security.

Poonawall spoke to the London Financial Times newspaper and met with his wife and children before the UK imposed a ban on flights to India. He told the Times of London that he had left the country in part because of unspecified “threats” from unnamed top politicians and business figures demanding access to vaccines. The Indian government last week gave Poonawall more security.

But he told the FT that he was not in London due to security concerns and that business was normal, with plans to return to India next week.

The Serum Institute has been accused by foreign governments of failing to award trade contracts after India it froze vaccine exports in March.

Poonawall said the company has begun to “return” governments that have previously placed orders but have not identified countries. “But I think if we don’t see much change in two or three months, then I think we’re going to have some problems.”