The United States said it awaits the green light from the Indian government on vaccine aid.
Washington:
The United States on Tuesday said it is ready to ship its COVID-19 vaccines expeditiously after it has received the green light from the Indian government, which has asked Americans to comply with legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations. Need more time to review.
“We are ready to ship those vaccines as quickly as we get the green light from the Indian government,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.
The Biden administration has announced to share 80 million doses from its domestic stockpile with countries around the world, including India. In recent weeks, US vaccines have landed in countries around the world, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
However, vaccines could not be shipped to India as the Indian government has yet to clear the legal hurdles required for such emergency imports.
“Before we can ship those doses, however, each country must complete its own domestic set of operational, regulatory and legal procedures that are specific to each country. Now, India has determined that the legal provisions relating to it. Needs more time to review accepting vaccine donations,” Price said.
“Once India works through its legal processes, our donation of vaccines to India will proceed rapidly. We will need to let you know the status of our discussions with COVAX to the Indian government, which will help in this matter. Doing delivery,” he said.
“More broadly across South Asia, we are donating millions of vaccines to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Around 40 million doses have been distributed across the world so far,” he said. .
In response to another question, Price said the COVID-19 cooperation between the two countries builds on decades of successful partnerships 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 to securing global supply chains,” he said. .
“We welcome the recent initiative to collaborate through the International Center of Excellence in Research focused on infectious diseases, and in this case that includes COVID-19 and other emerging threats. We are pursuing a comprehensive MoU, a MoU. Memorandum, look forward to expanding beyond health cooperation,” he said.
Both countries are working during this time on diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines to combat the disease and recognize the importance of manufacturing critical drugs and making them globally accessible.
“We have been able to do this because India’s pharmaceutical sector is strong, it is well established, it has played a central role in manufacturing vaccines for global use in some time. We are delighted that US pharmaceutical companies are coordinating with this. their Indian counterparts since the start of the pandemic,” said Price.
“As you are aware, beyond this partnership, in the context of the Quad Leaders Summit, an agreement was made to work with India to promote the manufacture of COVID vaccines that are safe and secure for vaccines around the world. Will support effective and ultimately universal distribution,” he said.
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