Highlights:
- According to David Malpass, India is blessed to have the Serum Institute as a major global vaccine manufacturer.
- He also talked about India’s domestic vaccination programme is being ramped up, which he finds encouraging.
- David Malpass made the remarks at a media roundtable on Monday, ahead of the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings.
India is fortunate to have a big manufacturer of global vaccines in the Serum Institute, according to World Bank President David Malpass, who is encouraged by the country’s ramping up of its domestic vaccination programme.
Malpass made the remarks at a media roundtable on Monday, ahead of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings.
David Malpass while commenting about Serum Institute said, “I’ve worked with the Serum Institute of India on many occasions, and India is lucky to have a major manufacturer of global vaccines.”
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In response to a question, Malpass said that he has advocated for greater transparency in terms of national requirements for local production, which he claims applies to countries all over the world.
As per Malpass, “It hasn’t been clear what the local production criteria are to satisfy local demands, whether in the United States, Europe, India, or South Africa.” He further added, “India’s enhanced domestic coronavirus vaccination programme has inspired me, and we’re working together on it. This is a top priority for the international community.”
Mr. Malpass further added, “Because of the enormous capacity limitations, it takes a lot of people to carry out the scale of vaccination campaign that we are.”
According to the Health Ministry, India has administered a total of 7,06,18,026 COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Friday.
As a result, Malpass believes it is important to provide early vaccine distribution to developing countries because vaccinations can take a long time to administer.
“One of the highest priorities for the world, in my view, is to allow vaccine supplies to be sent directly to developing countries themselves, even the poorest countries, so that the vaccination process can begin,” Malpass said.
According to him, the World Bank will have 50 countries with funding contracts in place by the middle of this year, enabling the money to be used to purchase vaccines as they become available around the world. He said that the bank is actively working on this.
He listed climate change concerns as India is the World Bank’s biggest programme, he said.
The World Bank President, David Malpass also said, “All sources of energy will be one of the world’s greatest challenges as we work with India and the changes that are being made to provide cleaner, lower-carbon fuels for electricity, and I know India is working directly on this. In terms of both greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation, it is a significant country in the global mix.”
There are 131,666,045 COVID-19 cases worldwide, with 2,858,491 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
