India willing to produce Covid-19 vaccine jointly in other countries, says Foreign Secretary Shringla

The government will soon take foreign diplomats based in New Delhi for a tour to vaccine development and diagnostic facilities in Pune, even as India has expressed its willingness for joint production of the Covid-19 vaccine in other countries.

New Delhi reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment that India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity would be used to help the humanity fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Several countries have been approaching us for receiving vaccine supply,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla said.

“I reiterate our prime minister’s commitment that India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis. India will also help interested countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities for the delivery of vaccines.”

Shringla and other senior government officials on Friday briefed foreign envoys and representatives of international organisations based in New Delhi about India’s response to the pandemic and the progress made in the country in developing a vaccine to keep the SARS-CoV-19 away.

“We are on track on the development and trial of vaccines,” Shringla told the envoys.

“We are exploring the possibility of conducting phase III trials in a few of our partner countries. We are also looking forward to research-collaboration in the field of vaccine development”.

“Based on willingness,” he said, “we may also go for joint production of vaccines in some countries. We have already conducted online training sessions for nearly 90 participants from eight neighbouring countries to develop capacity in clinical trials and clinical practices. Based on demand, we can conduct more such training courses.”

He said that India had added enormous production capacity in PPEs, testing kits, medicines and was also sharing with others.

He underlined that increase in testing numbers, contact tracing, effective isolation protocol, efficient use of hospital beds, increased availability of medical equipment, testing kits and sustained public awareness campaign had taken India’s recovery rate up to 91.96 % now and the case fatality rate had dropped to 1.49 %.

“With progressively falling positivity rate, testing has worked as an effective tool to limit the spread of infection,” he said.