‘Catastrophic’: Africa CDC issues warning over India shot delays

Continent unlikely to meet vaccination targets if AstraZeneca supply delays from Serum Institute of India continue.

The head of Africa’s disease-control body has warned that India’s temporary hold on major exports of AstraZeneca’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine will undermine the continent’s inoculation plans and could have a “catastrophic” impact if extended. The Serum Institute of India (SII) recently announced that as many as 90 million doses of the shot destined for the COVAX initiative worldwide will be delayed through the end of April as India’s government grapples with a spike in infections among the country’s 1.4 billion people. Reports this week said India’s move is aimed at making sure it could meet local demand. The hold “will definitely impact our ability to continuously vaccinate people”, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told a news conference in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday.