NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been lauded by the global leaders as India continues to lead in assisting the countries under its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Last month, India had dispatched a consignment of 50,000 doses of Covishield vaccine to Seychelles.
Soon after receiving the vaccine, Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan in his state of the nation address in the National Assembly of Seychelles on January 22, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for donating the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
“I thank Prime Minister Modi and the Government of India for making us the first African country to which India has donated the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said. He further said, “We can give this vaccine to all our population including those who are above 60 years so once again thank you very much for helping us in our mass vaccination programme.”
On February 20, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his two-nation tour to Maldives and Mauritius handed over 100,000 additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid and Health Minister Kerafa Naseem.
India has already rolled out a massive coronavirus vaccination drive under which two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, are being administered to frontline health workers across the country. Maldivian FM Shahid thanked India for the “generous gift” of 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines adding that the two countries would overcome the COVID-19 pandemic together.
“Additional 100,000 doses of hope! Thankyou to the people of India for this generous gift. Delighted to accept, with Health Minister Naseem, on behalf of Government & people of the Maldives! Together, we will overcome #Covid19! Together, we will succeed,” Shahid wrote in a tweet.
According to informed sources, India’s rapid and comprehensive assistance to the Maldives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has further reinforced its credentials of being the first responder. Maldives was the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines from India when India gifted 100,000 doses in January 2021.
On February 21, a consignment of Indian-made vaccines arrived in Serbia under the Vaccine Maitri initiative. Earlier, Jaishankar had said that India has been “very much” at the forefront of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and is providing vaccines to the world under ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiatives.
Twenty-five nations across the world have already received Made in India vaccines and Forty-nine more countries will be supplied in the coming days, ranging from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands, he announced. (ANI)
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