Government scraps local trials for foreign vaccines to fast-track imports

Govt says working with Pfizer for earliest import; multiple rounds of talks held with J&J, Moderna

India on Thursday scrapped local trials for "well-established" foreign coronavirus vaccines to fast-track imports as it battles a devastating second wave of the pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of people.
 

India recorded its highest COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began last year in May, accounting for just over a third of the overall total.
 

India has been inoculating its people with the AstraZeneca vaccine produced locally at the Serum Institute, Covaxin made by local firm Bharat Biotech, and has begun rolling out Russia's Sputnik V.
 

But supplies are far short of the millions of doses the world's