Covid-19 roundup: In­dia nudges US to lift ma­te­ri­als ex­port ban as cas­es surge

Fac­ing the world’s worst coro­n­avirus surge, In­dia is fo­cus­ing its at­ten­tion on a US ban of raw ma­te­ri­als ex­ports to try to meet spik­ing do­mes­tic de­mand for vac­cines.

In­di­an health of­fi­cials have asked US diplo­mats to lift the ban, which the US had in­voked as part of the De­fense Pro­duc­tion Act to keep the ma­te­ri­als on its own shores, Reuters re­port­ed Mon­day. Though In­dia is the world’s largest vac­cine man­u­fac­tur­er, the ex­port ban threat­ens to slow down its vac­cine dri­ve just as cas­es have be­gun to sky­rock­et, two gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials told Reuters.

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