Quad Group Vaccines Made In India To Roll Out In First Half Of 2022

The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines that are a part of the Quad group of countries’ pledge to donate vaccines across the world will be rolled out in the first half of 2022, according to a statement from the group on Friday.

The Quad group comprising of Australia, Japan, India, and the United States had last year promised to supply more than a billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine worldwide by the end of 2022. The vaccines are being manufactured by India’s Biological E.

Foreign ministers of the Quad group met in Australia’s Melbourne on Friday. The statement released following the meeting said, “We are pleased with the Quad Vaccine Partnership's rapid progress in expanding vaccine production at the Biological E Ltd facility in India, which aims to deliver at least 1 billion vaccines by the end of 2022”.

Notably, the statement did not specify the number of vaccines or to which countries the they would be supplied to.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, 2021 had told the Quad leaders that India would allow the export of eight million Covid-19 vaccines by the end of October 2021.

Hit by the second wave of the virus since, India stopped vaccine exports for most of 2021 in a bid to vaccinate its own population.

"We are assisting to train healthcare workers, combat vaccine hesitancy and augment infrastructure, especially cold chain systems, for 'last mile' vaccine delivery," the statement further said.