India's Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Monday that it will soon resume the export of vaccines to other countries from next month itself.

This service will resume after India stopped the export in April this year to focus on vaccinating its own citizens when the second wave of the pandemic began to peak after supplying over 66.3 crore doses to other countries.

"The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya announced resuming of Vaccine Maitri in the fourth quarter starting October 2021," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

According to the ministry, the Union Health Minister informed that India will be resuming the export of Vaccines under Vaccine Maitri to fulfill the commitment of India towards COVAX, in line with our motto Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

The Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access or COVAX is a worldwide initiative spearheaded by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure equitable distribution of jabs.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also said that more than 30 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be produced in India in the month of October alone. Over 100 crore doses will be produced in the fourth quarter of this year, he told the media.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Covid dashboard, a total of 80.85 crore doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered across the country to date.