Canada on Wednesday extended gratitude to India for sending coronavirus vaccines, of which 500,000 doses reached on March 4, a week after the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved, Trend reports citing The Singapore Post.
Taking to Twitter, MP for Oakville and Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Anita Anand, said: “The AZ/CoviShield vaccine is now in Canada. The first tranche of 500,000 doses arrived this morning from Serum Institute of India with 1.5 million more doses to follow. Thank you to all whose hard work made this happen. We look forward to future collaboration.”
Earlier, Anand had informed that another 944,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be reaching Canada this week, of which 444,600 doses are of Pfizer and 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca.
While lauding the efforts made by Anand and her team to procure the coronavirus vaccines, Jennifer O’Connell, MP for Pickering-Uxbridge, said, “This is incredible work – AstraZeneca was approved this past Friday and thanks to Minister Anita, her team and the many others involved, 5 days later we have received 500,000 doses with 1.5 million more on the way! We’re now set to receive more than 6.5M doses by the end of March!”
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had appreciated the support and partnership provided by India in fighting COVID-19 and helping secure coronavirus vaccine doses for the people of Canada.
“This morning, Health Canada authorized the AstraZeneca Oxford COVID-19 vaccine as well as the Serum Institute of India’s version COVISHIELD. We now have a safe and third vaccine independently approved by health experts in Canada. This is very encouraging news, which means more people would be vaccinated soon,” Trudeau had said.
Last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Trudeau and assured that India will do its best to support Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
Expressing his appreciation, the Canadian Prime Minister said that if the world managed to conquer COVID-19, “it would be significantly because of India’s tremendous pharmaceutical capacity, and Prime Minister Modi’s leadership in sharing this capacity with the world”.