Centre allows export of 20mn Novavax doses to Indonesia

The Centre has approved the export of 20 million doses of the Novavax Covid-19 jab, made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), to Indonesia, a Health Ministry official said on Friday. The official also said that the Centre has allowed the export of 10 million doses of Covishield to the WHO and GAVA-led global vaccine-sharing programme COVAX.

Regarding children's vaccines, the source added that the Centre is not in a hurry to take any decision but will go through complete scientific evaluation before final call. The government first wants to make sure it has enough doses to fully inoculate all of its citizens.

India has, so far, administered at least one dose to 81 per cent of its adults and two doses to 41 per cent.

The government has no immediate plans to allow booster shots for its citizens.

Meanwhile, a total of 110 countries have recognised India's vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, and agreed to the mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates with India.

A total of 72,94,864 vaccine doses have been administered in the last 24 hours and the country's Covid inoculation coverage has reached 115.23 crore as of Friday morning.

This has been achieved through 1,18,39,293 in sessions.

So far, more than 129 crore vaccine doses have been provided to the states and UTs, by the Central government (free of cost channel and through direct state procurement category), the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Over 22.66 crore unutilised vaccine doses are still available with the states/UTs.