[ti:India’s Limits on Vaccine Exports Leave Nations Seeking New Suppliers] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]India's new limits on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine exports [00:07.20]has forced several Asian nations to find new suppliers. [00:13.44]The country's Serum Institute is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine. [00:20.64]India decided recently to temporarily limit exports of the medicine [00:26.84]as the nation itself faces rising demand for vaccines. [00:32.92]The Serum Institute had planned to produce 90 million doses [00:39.56]for the World Health Organization-backed COVAX vaccine program. [00:46.12]The international program aims to deploy COVID-19 vaccines [00:51.80]to poorer nations around the world. [00:55.68]It was not immediately clear how many vaccine doses [01:00.28]would be set aside for use in India. [01:03.68]But Indian export restrictions could interfere [01:08.60]with the COVAX program, which aims to serve 64 nations. [01:15.24]Vaccine production problems already trouble the program. [01:20.00]It also struggles from a lack of money. [01:24.32]Wealthy countries are not providing enough financial support [01:28.92]to COVAX, COVAX officials say. [01:33.12]The shortage is likely to leave poor countries without necessary [01:38.40]vaccine supplies and lead to increases in vaccine inequity. [01:45.12]It could also make it more difficult for some nations [01:49.64]to control COVID-19 as new virus versions appear. [01:56.12]South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam [02:01.36]are among countries to be hit by vaccine shipment delays [02:06.24]under the COVAX program. [02:08.88]Carlito Galvez is heading COVID-19 vaccine efforts in the Philippines. [02:16.52]He told reporters that COVAX shortages [02:20.84]mean the country's "planned increase in daily vaccinations will be affected." [02:28.44]In Indonesia, a health ministry official told Reuters [02:33.28]that 10.3 million doses from COVAX were likely to be delayed until May. [02:41.40]South Korea confirmed it would only receive 432,000 doses [02:48.72]of the 690,000 it was promised and would likely not receive those [02:55.88]until around the third week of April. [02:59.76]The head of South Korea's COVID-19 vaccination effort, Kim Ki-nam, [03:06.24]said the country was "making efforts to secure more vaccines." [03:12.88]In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte [03:17.00]decided to loosen government restrictions on private vaccine imports [03:23.00]to make it easier for companies to get much-needed supplies. [03:28.32]In Vietnam, officials have also sought help from private companies [03:34.52]after the nation's COVAX supplies were cut by 40 percent [03:40.24]and shipments now face long delays. [03:44.92]India has not provided details on how long its export restriction will last. [03:52.08]But UNICEF, a COVAX partner, [03:55.48]recently said shipments are expected to restart by May. [04:01.36]WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [04:07.48]said Tuesday that COVAX needed 10 million vaccine doses [04:12.80]immediately to fill an urgent need. [04:16.88]"We are already in discussion with some countries [04:20.56]and there is some positive signal," he said. [04:24.40]Data from UNICEF shows that India itself had received [04:30.28]over a third of the nearly 28 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines [04:36.56]from COVAX so far, the most of any country. [04:41.48]News that the largest amount of the program's [04:44.72]Indian-made vaccines had never left India [04:48.48]could add to criticism of the Indian government and COVAX. [04:54.80]Africa is highly dependent on COVAX for its vaccines. [05:00.08]Nearly all the 89 million doses the continent was to receive through COVAX [05:06.60]in the coming weeks were AstraZeneca from India. [05:12.08]Reuters reported that just 15 million doses had been received so far. [05:19.04]"We have good diplomatic relations with China and Russia [05:24.20]and we are asking if we can have access to their vaccines in April," [05:29.92]said the Philippines' Carlito Galvez. [05:33.52]Both the Philippines and Indonesia [05:37.44]are currently depending heavily on vaccines [05:40.88]from China's Sinovac Biotech. [05:44.24]The Philippines and Vietnam have also approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, [05:51.64]along with more than 50 other mainly developing nations. [05:57.12]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM