India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by Serum Institute of India (SII), prioritising domestic demand as infections rise, Reuters reported earlier this week.

India’s move will affect supplies to the Gavi/WHO-backed global Covax vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 lower-income countries including Indonesia are supposed to get doses from SII.

Indonesia, which is suffering one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, was scheduled to receive 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax programme on March 22 and 7.8 million doses next month, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a media briefing.

“This definitely will affect (the vaccination process) because in April we only have around 7 million doses from Sinovac,” Budi said, referring to the Chinese maker of rival vaccines which has also been supplying Indonesia.

As Indonesia is injecting around 500,000 doses per day, the supply for April will be used within around two weeks, he added.