The United States on July 13 said that it was ready to ship COVID-19 vaccines as soon as it got a green signal from the Indian government that has sought further time to review legal provisions related to accepting the donation.
“We are ready to ship those vaccines expeditiously when we have a green light from the Government of India,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.
The Biden administration had announced a donation of 80 million doses from its domestic stockpile with countries around the world, including India. In recent weeks, the U.S. vaccines have landed in countries across the world, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
However, they have not been sent to India as the necessary legal clearance by the Indian government for such an emergency import is yet to be given.
“Before we can ship those doses, however, each country must complete its own domestic set of operational, regulatory, and legal processes. Now, India has determined that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting the vaccine donations,” Mr. Price said.
“Once India works through its legal processes, our donations of vaccines to India will proceed expeditiously. We would need to refer you to the Government of India on the status of its discussions with COVAX, which, in this case, is helping to facilitate that delivery,” he said.
“Throughout South Asia, we’re donating millions of vaccines to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Roughly 40 million doses have been delivered worldwide so far,” he added.
Mr. Price said cooperation between countries in the fight against COVID-19 is built on decades of successful partnership in health and biomedical research. “We are partnering to strengthen the global response to COVID-19 on issues ranging from addressing infectious-disease outbreaks to strengthening health systems and securing global supply chains,” he said.
“We recently welcomed an initiative to collaborate, through the International Center of Excellence in Research, which focused on infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and other emerging threats. We look forward to an overarching memorandum of understanding to enhance health cooperation beyond that,” he added.
The two countries are further working on diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to combat the disease and recognise the importance of manufacturing critical drugs and making them accessible globally.
“We are able to do that because India’s pharmaceutical sector is strong. It is well-established, played a central role in manufacturing vaccines for global use over some time. We are pleased that U.S. pharmaceutical companies are coordinating with their Indian counterparts since the beginning of the pandemic,” Mr. Price said.
“Beyond this partnership, in the context of the Quad leaders’ summit, there was an agreement to work with India to boost manufacturing of COVID vaccines that would support safe, effective and universal distribution of vaccines around the world,” he said.
