India's largest vaccine producer Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday said it would continue to scale up its production of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine and start exporting to other countries by the end of the year. In the statement, the company has said that in January 2021, the company had a large stockpile of vaccine doses. Battling the world's biggest jump in coronavirus infections, India halted vaccine exports a month ago after donating or selling more than 66 million doses. The move has left countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and many in Africa scrambling for alternate supplies. The World Health Organization, which co-leads COVAX, on Monday called on vaccine makers outside India to advance supplies to the program given the shortfall from the South Asian country.

Source: dna May 18, 2021 15:00 UTC