India delivers 5,00,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan, says MEA

The Centre on Sunday sent 5,00,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Afghanistan as part of New Delhi's vaccine diplomacy. The 'Made in India' vaccine doses arrived in Afghanistan from Mumbai earlier last morning. Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar expressed his "profound gratitude" to the government and people of India for the vaccine doses that will help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic. "A clear sign of generosity, commitment & strong partnership indeed," Haneef said. 

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India delivers vaccine doses to 15 nations

This comes after External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said India has so far supplied COVID-19 vaccine doses to at least 15 countries, while another 25 nations remain in the queue. MEA Jaishankar said that India is dealing with three types of countries - low-income nations, price-sensitive nations, and the ones that directly negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. New Delhi is currently supplying doses that are being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), which is producing AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.  

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Last week, the External Affairs Ministry announced that India is planning to give 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the United Nations as part of the COVAX initiative. India also said it will gift 10 million doses to Africa. India has gifted over 55 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines to its neighbouring countries so far, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, and Mauritius. India is also planning to commercially sell the COVID-19 vaccines to Saudi Arabia, Canada, and other countries, while it has already engaged in deals with Brazil, and Morocco. 

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While supplying COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries, India is also running its own inoculation drive since January 16. India has approved two COVID-19 vaccines - AstraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. India, which is running one of the largest vaccination programmes in the world, has vaccinated more than 5.7 million people to date, primarily health care professionals and other frontline essential workers. 

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