Centre won’t import vaccines, leaving it to states, say officials

NEW DELHI: The Centre will not import Covid-19 vaccines itself but expects states and companies to do so, two government officials aware of the developments said, a decision that may slow acquisitions of shots just as a second wave of the pandemic rips through the country.

They said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government would instead aim to support domestic vaccine makers by guaranteeing purchases from them. The government this month paid vaccine makers in India in advance, for the first time, for supply of doses.

After cases began soaring this month, the Centre urged Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to seek permission to sell their shots in India, and relaxed rules for them.

But the officials said the government was now leaving it up to states and companies to sign deals with foreign drugmakers while it buys in bulk most of the output of domestic producers -the Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Oxford University-astrazeneca vaccine, and Bharat Biotech.

“The situation is desperate,” one of the government officials, told Reuters. “India will allow import of vaccines” by local partners of the drug companies but the Central government “won’t buy”.