Neighbours thank India for Covid vaccines

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 22

Leaders from neigbouring countries, including prime ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal along with the Maldives president, have thanked India for the Covid vaccine gift.

“There is interest in many countries in accessing vaccines from India which is the global hub for vaccine production,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at the weekly media briefing on Friday.

Speaking on the requests for vaccines, he said the grant assistance to neighbouring countries began on January 20.

On the first day, 1.5 lakh doses of vaccines were supplied to Bhutan and 1 lakh doses to Maldives as grant assistance. On Thursday, supplies of 10 lakh doses to Nepal and 20 lakh doses to Bangladesh were undertaken.

On Friday, consignments of 15 lakh doses for Myanmar, 1 lakh doses to Mauritius and 50,000 doses to Seychelles were airlifted.

Supplies as grant assistance to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will be undertaken after receiving confirmation of regulatory clearances from these two countries.

Contractual supplies are also being undertaken to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Keeping in view the domestic requirements of the phased rollout, India will continue to supply the vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner.

It will ensure that domestic manufacturers will have adequate stocks to meet domestic requirements while supplying abroad, said Srivastava.

The MEA said it was not aware of any request for the supply of Indian made vaccines to Pakistan.

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