International delays on Covid-19 vaccine supplies shipped out of India will continue into April, according to the World Health Organization, even as discussions are underway with the Indian government to get some supplies in March and April.

“Deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX Facility will face delays during March and April as the Government of India battles a new wave of Covid-19 infections,” the WHO said.

The WHO-supported COVAX and the Indian government remain in discussions to ensure some supplies are completed during March and April, it added.

Low-income economies

According to an agreement between Gavi, the vaccines initiative, and SII, which included funding to support an increase in manufacturing capacity, the latter is contracted to provide COVAX with the SII-licenced and manufactured AstraZeneca (AZ)-Oxford vaccine (known as Covishield) to 64 lower-income economies participating in the Gavi COVAX AMC (including India), alongside its commitments to the Indian government, the WHO said.

Till date, “COVAX has been supplied with 28 million Covishield doses and was expecting an additional 40 million doses to be available in March, and up to 50 million doses in April,” the note said.

COVAX has notified all affected economies of potential delays, the WHO said, adding that SII has pledged that, alongside supplying India, it will prioritise the COVAX multilateral solution for equitable distribution.

The development comes in the wake of shortages in the UK, that also lead back to delays from SII.

Meanwhile, the WHO said that participating economies have received guidance from it on “optimising the national deployment doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in a constrained supply environment.”

More time needed

The WHO explained that vaccine manufacturers required time to scale and optimise their production processes in the early phases of the vaccine roll-out. AstraZeneca, which uses a novel supply chain network with sites across multiple continents, is working to enable initial supply to 82 countries through COVAX in the coming weeks.

COVAX expects to supply initial doses of vaccines to all participating economies in the first half of the year before ramping up significantly in the second half of 2021, it said, adding that vaccines had been shipped to over 50 countries and economies.

COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and is co-convened by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi and the WHO – working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others.