Vaccine giant Serum Institute of India (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla on Sunday urged the countries and governments waiting for Chinese coronavirus vaccines to be a little patient as they are prioritising Indian needs for inoculation.
Dear countries & governments, as you await #COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient, @SerumInstIndia has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) February 21, 2021
Taking to Twitter, Poonawalla said, “Dear countries & governments, as you await #COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient, @SerumInstIndia has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best.”
Pune-based SII has been producing hundreds of millions of doses for AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines. Many countries around the world depend on the supply of SII for the vaccine. SII also plans to supply 200 million doses to Covax, a World Health Organization-backed effort to procure and distribute inoculations to poor countries.
It has been little over a month since India started emergency use of vaccines for the frontline workers. As of now 10.67 million people in India have been inoculated. India plans to vaccinate 300 million people by July this year.
