India to supply 10 million COVID-19 vaccines to African countries

India has supplied over 5.5 million doses of indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccines to other countries, and will supply 10 million doses of the vaccines to African countries in the coming days, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday.

He said the vaccine doses were supplied on request from other countries.

According to him, the vaccines have already been supplied to Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Bahrain.

Srivastava said vaccine doses were being supplied to other countries in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that India sees international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic as its duty.

Commercial exports have taken place to Brazil, Morocco and Bangladesh, he said, adding that further supplies on a commercial basis are likely to take place to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada and Mongolia.

“Further, we are going to supply 10 million doses to Africa and 1 million to UN health workers,” added the Ministry spokesman.

“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,” he added.

Source: GNA