India to provide HCQ to more nations

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

Among the 13 recipients of Indian shipments of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is Dominican Republic which is this month’s chair of the UN Security Council.

India’s first list of 13 countries that will receive shipments of HCQ are Nepal, Germany, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bahrain, US, Spain, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas, in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, thanked India. “In these trying times for our country and indeed the whole world, the possibility of procuring this medicine from India will make a tremendous difference because each life saved brings hope to our people,’’ he wrote.

Significantly, as Chair of the UNSC for the month of April, Dominican Republic has overseen a closed-door discussion on Covid which China has stonewalled when it held the Chair of UNSC last month.

Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the first batch of medicines that also includes HCQ tablets, said an official news release. Significantly India is eyeing a closer security relationship with both these countries that are strategically placed in the western Indian Ocean.

Mauritius Vice Prime Minister Leela Devi received the first batch of 5 lakh tablets of HCQ sent via a special Air India cargo flight from Delhi, said an official release.