Centre making all efforts to augment availability of COVID-19 vaccines in India: MEA

New Delhi [India], June 3 : The Government of India has been making all efforts to augment the availability of vaccines (COVID-19) in India where through enhanced production in the country or through supply from abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday.
Speaking at the weekly briefing, the MEA spokesperson said, "We remained engaged with US vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson, as part of this effort."
The spokesperson further said that India is engaged with the Biden administration to ensure that necessary components for vaccine manufacturing in India are readily available.
"We are separately also engaged with the US administration to ensure that necessary components and raw materials for vaccine manufacturing and production in India are readily available and the supply chains remain open," he said.
On the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's recent visit to the US, Bagchi said that "This issue (of raw materials) was taken up during the visit of External Affairs Minister to the United States. It is in our mutual interest to combat the global pandemic by expediting vaccination efforts."
On the Biden administration's vow to give millions of doses of COVID vaccine till June end, MEA spokesperson said that India is awaiting further details on the matter.
Over the issue of vaccine export to other countries, Bagchi said, "India has been at the forefront of extending assistance be it vaccine or other things to other countries...As we have repeatedly conveyed that we are currently purposing domestic vaccine production for our own vaccination program."