Covid-19 vaccines: India ready to share CoWIN platform globally

India, which has a capacity to produce five billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines in 2022, is ready to share its CoWIN platform globally under a WHO initiative, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla is reported to have said at a US-hosted meeting.

The country would also contribute to the Covid-19 global action plan launched on Monday and work with WHO’s partners to improve sub optimal approvals and regulatory processes, assured Shringla according to media reports.

India has offered CoWIN as an open-source digital public good and is in talks with WHO to share it through its Covid Technology Access Pool. It has supplied more than 162 million vaccine doses to nearly a hundred countries and two UN outfits. The country is also collaborating with its Quad partners, the US, Australia and Japan, to deliver a billion doses this year in the Indo-Pacific region.

The foreign secretary said that four WHO-approved vaccines are being produced in India as are three others that are awaiting approval. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, hosted the meet to coordinate the response in vaccination, supply chain resilience and to strengthen the global health security infrastructure.

With its vast experience in testing, treating and vaccinating millions of people across the sub-continent, India can create custom, capacity-building programmes for health workers in Asia, Africa and Latin America, said the foreign secretary.

India has administered over 1.7 billion doses, fully vaccinating 70 per cent of the adult population. CoWIN has handled up to 25 million daily vaccinations, he said.