PM Modi in virtual summit with Finland PM Sanna Marin discusses India's role to curb COVID

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a virtual summit with his counterpart in Finland Sanna Marin, in which India's role in the critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic was discussed in depth. Maintaining that combating the spread of the virus is the top priority of all governments, Marin acknowledged India's efforts in what she referred to as the 'extensive vaccination programme'. 

Elaborating on the same, PM Modi stated that in the year 2020, the country sent medicines and other essentials to more than 150 countries, and in the past few weeks, more than 70 countries have received more than 58 million doses of the Made in India vaccines.

Vaccine Maitri 

India's Vaccine Maitri programme that was started around a month ago,  aims to help poor countries amid the global pandemic. In this brief period, the country has got delivered around 45.6 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's indigenous vaccine, of which 38.47 million doses were commercial supplies and 7.12 million doses were granted to around 45 countries.

Neighbouring Bangladesh, which received 9 million doses of COVID-vaccines- 7 million doses as commercial supplies and 2 million doses as grant assistance,  on January 21 and an additional 5 million and 2 million doses of commercial supplies on January 25 and February 22, is the major recipient. Morocco emerged as the second major recipient with commercial supplies of 2 million, 4 million and 1 million doses of the vaccine on January 22, February, 11 and February 24, respectively. 

Ghana, Nigeria, Guyana, Guatemala, Tajikistan are some of the recent beneficiaries of this programme.  Some other countries that have received India's gift of vaccines in the past include Brazil, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.