Ukraine suspended its contract with Indian vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India due to a lack of delivery linked to an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 in India, Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko announced during a meeting on Aug. 28.
Ukraine was waiting for 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) and 10 million doses of Novavax. However, the Serum Institute was not able to export the promised vials due to a dire local situation.
“Serum Institute of India has not fully fulfilled its contractual obligations,” Lyashko said.
Earlier in March, India suspended its global exports of COVID-19 vaccines after experiencing intense spikes due to the spread of the Delta variant within its borders, focusing on its citizens.
India hoped to resume major exports of COVID-19 vaccines in October after diverting the doses for domestic use, but the crisis deepened. On Aug. 28, India recorded over 40,000 COVID-19 cases for the third day in a row, according to the Indian news outlet India Today.
The coronavirus has already killed over 437,000 people in the country.
In May, Cyrus Punawala, the founder and owner of the Indian agency, assured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that as soon as the Indian government resumed exports, Ukraine would be among the priority countries to receive the vaccine.
Ukraine has already established a new supply chain with Great Britain to compensate for the cut in vaccines’ delivery and tackle the spread of COVID-19 in the country, Lyashko said.
As of Aug. 28, Ukraine had registered 2,082 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases in the country was over 2.2 million since the pandemic started.
In turn, more than 2.2 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 53,686 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine in March 2020.
