The Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced that it will stop delivering doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the poorest countries for several months. The institute, one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines and serums based in Pune, produces the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca under the name "Covishield."
The institute mentioned yesterday, Tuesday, that it hopes to resume exports by the end of the year, indicating that the massive wave of infections in India is the cause of the delay. India is the second most affected country by the virus in the world after the United States, with over 25 million infections.
This delay is a setback for the COVAX initiative, which originally expected to provide 110 million doses of the vaccine produced by the institute to the poorest countries by May.
