SII's Poonawalla asks all to be patient for vaccine; 'prioritising India; balancing world'

CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla on Sunday has made an appeal asking world to be patient as Indian government has asked his company to prioritise internal vaccine needs and n balance requirement of vaccine globally. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar anunced at an open debate of UN Security Council 'implementation of resolution 2532 (2020) on cessation of hostilities' in context of Covid-19 outbreak. Followed by this development, India earlier this week anunced that it will gift 2 lakh doses of vaccines for UN peacekeepers. 

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Poonawala in a tweet wrote, “Dear countries & governments, as you await COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient. We are trying our best.”  SII is manufacturing  Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine in India under Covishield name and Poonawalla has been directed to balance development and supply of vaccines to entire world. 

India has become a source to world for supply of vaccine, given its large manufacturing capacity. SII's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin have served purpose of providing vaccinations to Brazil, Mexico and Canada along with Bangladesh among or neighbours. As such, India has sent vaccines to over a dozen countries and promised even more. Before vaccine, India had also been providing countries with supplies of medicines and PPEs. 

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Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also recently sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in procuring Covid-19 vaccinations. While Modi assured Trudeau that latter will be provided with vaccines at earliest, Poonawalla tweeted, 'As we await regulatory approvals from Canada, I assure you, Serum Institute of India will fly out COVISHIELD to Canada in less than a month; I’m on it!" Here's tweet

total number of coronavirus cases globally till date are 111,654,017 while 2,472,387 people have succumbed to virus. With combined efforts in place involving nations, 86,824,596 people have also recovered.

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India's SII, Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadilla, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immulogicals, Mynvax and Biological E;  US' Oxford University with AstraZenca, Moderna rapeutics, Ocugen Inc; Britain's Covax are a few in many candidates that have been playing a significant role in developing, manufacturing, supply and administration of Covid-19 vaccines.

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