UN thanks India for 200,000 vaccine doses for its peacekeepers; hails COVAX aid

On Saturday, the United Nations thanked India for providing 200,000 COVID vaccine doses for UN peacekeepers and appreciated the efforts to strengthen the COVAX facility for ensuring fair access to vaccines for all. India's Permanent Representative to UN TS Tirumurti quoted UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 

Guterres also thanked India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for offering 200,000 COVID vaccine doses for UN Peacekeepers. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, last week, India has supplied a total of 229.7 lakh doses of Coronavirus vaccines to the global community.

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UN Chief Guterres Welcomes India's Gift of COVID Vaccine

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “extremely grateful” for the gift of 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses by India for peacekeepers, said the UN chief spokesperson. Earlier, during an address to the UN Security Council meeting on COVID-19 on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had announced the gesture by India of giving 200,000 COVID-19 doses for the UN peacekeepers. MEA had said, “Keeping in mind the UN Peacekeepers who operate in such difficult circumstances, we would like to announce today a gift of 200,000 doses for them.”

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India Vaccinated 1 crore Beneficiaries

On Friday, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHWF) officials informed that India has achieved a massive milestone as the country has vaccinated more than 1 crore beneficiaries in its fight against COVID-19. In the largest vaccination drive in the world, India has inoculated 1,01,88,007 people through 2,11,462 sessions, as per the provisional report. On January 16, India began its largest Coronavirus vaccination drive with the help of thousands of health workers trained by the UN agencies. CoWin (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work) is an application introduced by the Central government to monitor the entire vaccination process. Covaxin & Covishield are the two vaccines that have received Emergency use Authorisation.

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World's largest vaccination drive

India, under the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative, has dispatched shipment to neighbouring countries including Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, Barbados, and Dominica, Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing 35,000 'Made In India’ coronavirus vaccines to the Caribbean nation. 

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(With ANI Inputs)