BRICS countries should work together to achieve target of vaccinating 70 percent of world population: Mansukh Mandaviya

Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya has said that  India is willing to offer its robust vaccine manufacturing industry for developing vaccines for  BRICS countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as well as the world. He said, India has one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing industries which supplies vaccines to more than 150 countries and meets 65 to 70 percent of WHO’s vaccine requirements.  

Dr. Mandaviya said this while launching the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center and Workshop on Vaccine Cooperation through a video conference in New Delhi yesterday. The Minister highlighted that the R&D Centre is a welcome initiative to collaborate with countries, share experiences, build collaborations for mutual benefits and accelerate development of vaccines of public health



importance. 

He said, this will enable saving lives and livelihood to propel us towards economic recovery for the citizens of BRICS countries and the world. The Minister said that BRICS countries should work together to support endeavors to achieve the WHO’s laid target of vaccinating 70 percent of the world’s population with COVID-19 vaccines by mid-2022.

Elaborating on the country’s capabilities and success of the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drive, Dr. Mandaviya said that India has so far administered more than 1.81 billion vaccination doses. He said, this wouldn’t have been possible without a robust and favorable ecosystem of vaccine R&D in the country. He informed that India has also so far approved 9 vaccines for COVID-19 emergency use, of which 5 are indigenous.