By Abdi Latif Dahir

NAIROBI, Kenya — The rapidly escalating coronavirus crisis in India is not only forcing hospitals to ration oxygen and sending families scrambling to find open beds for infected loved ones. It is also wreaking havoc on the global vaccination effort.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Africa.

Most nations were relying on vaccines produced by the Serum Institute factory in India. But the Indian government’s decision to restrict exports of doses as it deals with its own outbreak means that Africa’s already slow vaccination campaign could soon come to a near standstill.

Before India suspended exports, more than 70 nations received vaccines it manufactured, totaling more than 60 million doses. Many went to low- and middle-income countries through the Covax program, the global initiative aimed at ensuring equitable access to vaccines.

So far, Covax has delivered 43.4 million doses to 119 countries, but this represents only about 2 percent of the two billion doses it hopes to deliver this year, according to Andrea Taylor, an assistant director at the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

“The export controls from India are the primary constraint on Covax current supply,” she wrote in an email.

Even before India’s halt in shipments, Africa was experiencing the slowest vaccine rollout of any continent. As of April 21, African nations, with a total population of 1.3 billion, had acquired more than 36 million vaccine doses but administered only about 15 million, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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