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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday described India’s vaccine production capacity as the “best asset” the world has today, calling for India to play a major role in the global vaccination campaign.
The UN chief addressed reporters here, “I know that in India there is a very high level of production of Indian developed vaccines. We are in contact with Indian institutions for that. We strongly hope that India will have all the tools necessary to play a major role in ensuring that a campaign for global vaccination is made possible.
I would say a very important element in the democratisation of access to medicines all over the world, Guterres said of the need to democratise access to medicines. Today, I again called for licences to be made available so that businesses around the world can produce some of the vaccines that already exist.
As India has donated over 55 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine to neighbouring countries, the UN chief’s statement comes.
On Thursday, Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs (EAM), addressing a weekly briefing, said India plans to donate doses of vaccines to Oman, CARICOM countries, Nicaragua, Pacific Island countries.
Srivastava said New Delhi plans to provide Africa with 1 crore or 10 million vaccine doses and 10 lakh for health workers of the United Nations under the COVAX facility of GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization).
Many countries are interested in accessing India’s vaccine. In line with the official release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India sees international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic. Srivastava said, “There is interest in many countries to access vaccine from India. In accordance with the official release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India sees international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic. In the neighbourhood, we played the role of first responder,
We have donated more than 55 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines to our neighbouring countries and extended neighbourhoods from 20 January 2021 onwards—1.5 lakh to Bhutan, 1 lakh to Maldives, Mauritius, and Bahrain, 10 lakh to Nepal, 20 lakh to Bangladesh, 15 lakh to Myanmar, 50,000 lakh to Seychelles, 5 lakh to Sri Lanka.’We plan to give further quantities to Oman in the coming days, which are 1 lakh doses, 5 lakh doses to CARICOM countries. “He added, “Two lakh for Nicaragua, two lakh for the Pacific island state.
India, Srivastava said, is planning to export coronavirus vaccines commercially to Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mongolia, South Africa, and other countries.
