Press Releases
Portion of Transcript on Vaccine Supply
As mentioned last time, there is interest in many countries in accessing vaccines from India. In line with the PM’s announcement that India sees international cooperation in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as its duty, we have played the role of the first responder in our neighbourhood as well as undertaken supplies to countries beyond.
From 20 January 2021 onwards, we have gifted over 55 lakh doses of vaccines to our neighbouring countries and in our extended neighbourhood – Bhutan (1.5 lakh), Maldives (1 lakh), Nepal (10 lakh), Bangladesh (20 lakh), Myanmar (15 lakh), Mauritius (1 lakh), Seychelles (50,000), Sri Lanka (5 lakhs) and Bahrain (1 lakh). These supplies are based on requests from these countries. Over the next few days, we plan to gift further quantities to Oman (1 lakh), CARICOM countries (5 lakh), Nicaragua (2 lakh) and Pacific Island states (2 lakh).
Commercial exports have taken place to Brazil, Morocco and Bangladesh. Further supplies on a commercial basis are likely to take place to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada, Mongolia, etc. Further, we are going to supply 1 crore (10 million) doses to Africa and 10 lakh (1 million) to UN health workers under GAVI’s COVAX facility.
Our external supplies, whether as gifts or on a commercial basis, are based on domestic availability, licensing issues and regulatory approvals in the countries concerned.
We will continue to supply vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner. Decisions on these supplies will, of course, be calibrated against the requirements of the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine at home.
