India gifts around 55 lakh doses
Delhi, Feb 4: India is one of the world’s biggest drug makers. It has already started its coronavirus vaccination drive for frontline health workers in many states. Under its major initiative “Vaccine Maîtri”, India has started to send Indian-manufactured vaccines to neighbouring and key partner countries in a phased manner.
As part of grants assistance, it has sent 5 lakh vaccine doses to Sri Lanka and 1 lakh to Bahrain. On the basis of requests from these countries, India has sent 1.5 lakh doses to Bhutan and 1 lakh doses to Maldives.
Myanmar got 15 lakh doses, Mauritius 1 lakh doses, and Seychelles 50,000 doses.
India is also gifting 1 lakh doses to Oman, 5 lakh doses to CARICOM countries (Caribbean Community is a group of 20 islands), 2 lakh doses to Nicaragua, and 2 lakh doses to Pacific Island States. Under GAVI’s COVAX facility (GAV is global vaccine alliance), it is planning to supply 1 crore doses to Africa and 10 lakh to UN health workers. India is commercially exporting the vaccine to Brazil, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Bangladesh.
