Amid the growing heat over the Centre’s move earlier this year to export COVID-19 vaccines, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures Covishield, issued a statement in this regard on Tuesday. The company said that it “never exported vaccines at the cost of the people of India”.

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The company also explained the circumstances in which the vaccine consignments were exported.

“In January 2021, we had a large stockpile of vaccine doses,” the statement read. It added that India’s vaccination drive began successfully on January 16 and at that the number of daily cases being recorded was at an all-time low.

“At that stage, most people including health experts believed that India was turning the tide on the pandemic,” it read.

However, at that time, “many other countries in the world were facing an acute crisis and were in desperate need of help. Our government extended support wherever possible during this period,” it said.

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The central government is facing criticism over exporting vaccine doses, without ensuring the stock for Indians. Presently, as India is battling against the second wave of COVID-19 cases, several states have reported a vaccine shortage. Several vaccination centres had to be closed, many states suspended vaccination for the 18 to 45 age group and are floating tenders to procure vaccines from abroad.