India is suffering from both a record surge in new infections and a shortage of vaccines. Pfizer has sought to quell safety fears as India continues to insist on local trials prior for foreign shots.
India insists on small local trials for foreign shots despite a record surge in infections and shortage of dosesImage: Amit Sharma/AP Photo/picture alliance
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US pharmaceutical company Pfizer said on Monday it is in fresh talks with the Indian government over an "expedited approval pathway" for its COVID-19 vaccine.
"We are currently discussing with the Indian government an expedited approval pathway to make our Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available for use in the country," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a post on social networking site Linkedin.
Pfizer said it told the Indian government that there was no concern over the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine.
"Unfortunately, our vaccine is not registered in India although our application was submitted months ago," Bourla said.
Pfizer, which produces the coronavirus vaccine with German partner BioNTech, said it would only supply doses through government contracts.
India scrambles to fast-track vaccines
Pfizer was the first company to apply for emergency use authorization for its vaccine in India late last year.
The company withdrew its request in February after India sought a small, local safety trial for the shot before considering its request.
But as infections skyrocketed, the Indian government said in April it would fast-track approval for some foreign shots, with companies now required to do a domestic trial within 30 days of approval, not before.
India's second COVID wave leaves suffering in its wake
India is in mourning as coronavirus ravages cities across the country. More than 300,000 new cases are currently being reported every day, with people pleading for beds and oxygen outside hospitals.
Image: Amit Dave/REUTERS
India sees its darkest days of pandemic
India has added hundreds of thousands of cases in recent days, and the total death toll has surpassed 220,000. Cities are running out of space to bury or cremate the dead.
Image: Danish Siddiqui/REUTERS
COVID sufferers seek medical support at temples
An elderly woman suffering from breathing difficulties due to COVID-19 waits to receive free supplemental oxygen outside a Sikh temple on the outskirts of Delhi in Ghaziabad. Many who are struggling for breath due to COVID-19 have flocked to the temple, hoping to secure some of its limited oxygen supplies.
Image: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS
COVID patients turn to informal health services
Hospitals in Delhi and across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds. Many have put out urgent notices saying they can't cope with the rush of patients. The Sikh temple in Ghaziabad has come to resemble the emergency ward of a hospital. People all across Delhi are seeking and creating makeshift health care spaces.
Image: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS
Doctors treating patients wherever possible
A health care worker tests blood oxygen levels of a COVID patient inside an ambulance in the eastern city of Kolkata. With people being forced to wait many hours to receive treatment, doctors have been treating people in cars and taxis parked in front of hospitals.
A couple wait inside a rickshaw until they can enter a COVID-19 hospital for treatment in the western city of Ahmedabad. Social media and local news footage have captured desperate relatives begging for oxygen outside hospitals or weeping in the street for loved ones who have died waiting for treatment.
Image: Amit Dave/REUTERS
India in mourning
A young boy at a crematorium mourns the loss of his father, who died from COVID-19. In the last month alone, daily COVID cases in India have increased eight times over — and deaths, 10 times. Health experts have said the actual death toll is probably far higher than the official numbers.
Image: Adnan Abidi/REUTERS
India's younger population also hit
This 35-year-old woman is suffering from breathing difficulties due to COVID-19. Like many others, she is waiting in front of a hospital to receive oxygen support. Scientists are concerned that a more infectious "double mutation" of the virus is spreading in India.
Image: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS
Second COVID wave 'supremely contagious'
The family of a COVID victim mourn together outside a mortuary of a hospital in New Delhi. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said India's current infection wave is "particularly dangerous" and that people were falling sick more severely and for longer.
"It is supremely contagious, and those who are contracting it are not able to recover as swiftly."
The unfolding crisis is most noticeable in India's overwhelmed graveyards and crematoriums. Burial grounds in the capital New Delhi are running out of space. In other cities, glowing funeral pyres light up the night sky. "The virus is swallowing our city's people like a monster,'' said Mamtesh Sharma, an official at Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium in the central city of Bhopal.
Image: Adnan Abidi/REUTERS
Vaccine drive falling behind
India's vaccination program is lagging, with only 10% of the country's population having received one dose, and 1.5% having received both doses. Indians aged 18 and older are now eligible for a vaccine. The United States has said it would send raw materials for vaccine production to help strengthen India's capacity to manufacture more AstraZeneca vaccine.
Image: Francis Mascarenhas/REUTERS
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"Pfizer’s application for emergency use authorization was supported with data that shows an overall efficacy rate of 95% with no safety concerns," a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
India has also asked Johnson & Johnson and Moderna to sell their vaccines to the country.
On Saturday, India said it received 150,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and that "millions of doses" more would arrive.
Why is India struggling with its vaccine drive?
India has the world's biggest vaccine making capacity. However, daily COVID-19 inoculations have dropped sharply from an all-time high reached early April as local companies struggle to increase supplies and imports are limited.
Daily shots have averaged 2.5 million since hitting a peak of 4.5 million on April 5.
Around 10% of people in India have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Almost 2% are fully vaccinated.
The BioNTech-Pfizer has to be stored in ultra-low temperatures, which could prove a challenge.
Pfizer has said it could deliver doses to vaccination centers using specially designed, temperature-controlled thermal shippers.
The company said doses could be kept in ultra-low-temperature freezers for up to six months, in the shippers for up to 30 days by refilling them with dry ice every five days, or in common refrigeration for five days.
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Second wave derails health system
India reported 368,147 new coronavirus cases and 3,417 deaths on Monday.
India, a country with over 1.3 billion inhabitants, has been severely hit by a second COVID-19 wave with several virus variants since the end of February.
On Saturday, the South Asian country had reported over 400,000 cases for the first time, a global high.
The surge has overburdened India's struggling health system. At least 28 patients died on Monday night in the states of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh because oxygen supplies had run out, India's NDTV reported.
