Brazil becomes test bed for Indian, Chinese vaccines

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 22

Brazil has become the first country to receive commercially exported India-made vaccines after the issue became a political slugfest in Sao Paulo, while South Block independently decided that there were enough stocks to meet its domestic requirements.

Neighbours thank India for jab

• New Delhi: Leaders from neigbouring countries including Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal along with the Maldives President have thanked India for the Covid vaccine gift.
• On the first day, 1.5 lakh doses were supplied to Bhutan and 1 lakh to Maldives as grant assistance. On Thursday, 10 lakh doses to Nepal and 20 lakh doses to Bangladesh were sent.
• On Friday, 15 lakh doses for Myanmar, 1 lakh doses for Mauritius and 50,000 doses to Seychelles were airlifted.
• Supplies as grant assistance to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will be undertaken after receiving confirmation of regulatory clearances from these two countries.

Several countries turning to india

There is interest in many countries in accessing vaccines from India which is the global hub for vaccine production. - Anurag Srivastava, MEA Spokesperson

On Friday, the government cleared commercial exports to Brazil and Morocco though 50 countries have sought the vaccine. South Africa and Saudi Arabia are among the nations that have sought large doses of vaccines made in India.

Brazil has become the test bed for a contest between Chinese and Indian vaccines. This was the reason why Brazil wanted to dispatch aircraft a few days back but New Delhi had withheld clearance at that time. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had then vented his frustration at being bested by his political rival who was promoting a Chinese developed vaccine. He blamed the delay in receiving India-made vaccine on political pressures on PM Modi to first provide vaccines to all Indians.

The Leftist Governor of Sao Paulo province, Joao Doria, is backing a vaccine developed by the Chinese lab Sinovac with a local institute. She has already started an inoculation programme forcing Bolsonaro, her Rightist rival, to begin pressing New Delhi for faster supply of the vaccines as they are potential rivals in the 2022 presidential contest in Brazil.

The free supply to India’s neighbouring countries from Wednesday and the beginning of commercial exports from today marked a dramatic turnaround in the government’s position. A week ago, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said it was “too early to make specific comments” as “we are still in the stage of domestic production and distribution and making assessments here”. The vaccine shots developed by UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca and Oxford University are being manufactured at the Serum Institute of India.