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India sends 6 lakh Covid vaccine doses to Sri Lanka and Bahrain

Other News Materials 29 January 2021 13:47 (UTC +04:00)
India sends 6 lakh Covid vaccine doses to Sri Lanka and Bahrain

India rolled out 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as grant assistance for Sri Lanka and Bahrain under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative on Thursday, a day after Nepal and Myanmar launched their inoculation drives with made-in-India doses.

Two separate flights transported 500,000 doses to Sri Lanka and 100,000 doses to Bahrain as part of India’s plans to gift the AstraZeneca vaccine to friendly countries in the neighbourhood and key partners in other regions.

The supplies to Bahrain marked the first such aid to a country in West Asia, which India sees as part of its extended neighbourhood. Bahrain is home to 350,000 Indians, the largest expatriate community, and New Delhi had facilitated the travel of Indian medical professionals to Manama last year to cope with the pandemic.

The arrival of Indian-made vaccines in Colombo coincided with the celebration of Poya Day, which marks the first visit of the Buddha to Sri Lanka. Indian high commissioner Gopal Baglay offered prayers at Gangaramaya Temple for the well-being of the people of Sri Lanka and handed over the vaccines to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa said on Twitter: “Received 500,000 #COVID-19 vaccines provided by #peopleofindia at #BIA today (28). Thank you! PM Shri @narendramodi & #peopleofindia for the generosity shown towards #PeopleofSriLanka at this time in need.”

The delivery fulfilled Modi’s commitment to his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa, made at their virtual summit last September, for all possible support to address the health and economic impacts of the pandemic.

Since the launch of the Vaccine Maitri (Vaccine Friendship) initiative on January 20, India has gifted vaccines to Bhutan (150,000 doses), the Maldives (100,000 doses), Bangladesh (two million doses), Nepal (one million doses), Myanmar (1.5 million doses), Seychelles (50,000 doses), and Mauritius (100,000 doses).

“Over the next few days, we plan to gift further quantities to Oman (100,000 doses), CARICOM countries (500,000 doses), Nicaragua (200,000 doses) and Pacific Island states (200,000 doses),” external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

Commercial supplies of Covishield have been sent to Brazil, Morocco (two million doses each) and Bangladesh (five million doses), and more supplies are planned for South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mongolia. Another 10 million doses will be sent to Africa and one million doses will be provided to UN health workers under Gavi’s COVAX facility, he said.

“We will continue to supply vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner. Decisions on these supplies will be calibrated against the requirements of the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine at home,” he added.

On Wednesday, both Nepal and Myanmar launched their inoculation drives using made-in-India doses. Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, was Nepal’s preferred choice because of its compatibility with the country’s existing cold storage facilities.

Nepal plans to inoculate 430,000 people, including health and frontline workers, security personnel, senior citizens and prisoners, in the initial stages of its drive. It also intends to cover six million people in the first phase of the drive and is engaged in talks with India for commercial supplies of more vaccines.

Launching the vaccination drive, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said his government plans to immunise all eligible citizens in the next three months. Nepal will also receive millions of doses from Gavi or the Vaccine Alliance through the COVAX facility.

Myanmar has signed an agreement with Serum Institute to buy 30 million doses, in addition to the 1.5 million doses it received as a grant last week, as part of plans to inoculate the population of about 54 million. The first commercial supplies from India are expected in early February.

Authorities have said the initial stages of Myanmar’s drive will cover health workers, frontline service providers, government officials and lawmakers. Vaccinations for others will be rolled out from February 5, with first preference for people in most affected areas.

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