New Delhi (NVI): With India’s vaccine diplomacy going beyond the neighborhood, India-made Covid vaccines today reached Egypt, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed.
“Beyond the neighbourhood, now to the Nile. Egypt receives Made in India vaccines,” Jaishankar wrote on Twitter.
Beyond the neighbourhood, now to the Nile. Egypt receives Made in India vaccines. #VaccineMaitri pic.twitter.com/U8qBZSVq8g
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January 31, 2021
Under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, India has already sent consignments of two domestically produced vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — under grant assistance to Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
There has been an increasing demand of Indian-made Covid vaccines from countries like Brazil, the Philippines and the UAE.
So far, India has delivered over 5.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to neighbors and friendly countries.
These include 1,50,000 to Bhutan, 1,00,000 to the Maldives, one million to Nepal, two million to Bangladesh, 1.5 million to Myanmar, 50,000 to Seychelles, and 5,00,000 to Sri Lanka.
On a commercial level, exports to Bangladesh, Brazil and Morocco have been made.
India also plans to commercially export vaccines to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mongolia.
The Covishield vaccine has been developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India that has a deal with AstraZeneca to produce the vaccine in the country.
Covaxin, another effective Covid vaccine, approved by the Indian drug regulator (DCGI) has been developed by Bharat Biotech (Hyderabad), the Indian Council of Medical Research (Delhi) and the National Institute of Virology (Pune).
-ARK
