Vaccine Maitri Diplomacy: More Latin American countries to get Covid vaccine doses from India

Under India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative, a shipment of 870,000 vaccines are going to reach Mexico soon. These vaccines will reach there on Sunday (February 14, 2021) and will help that country in its vaccination programme.

In his weekly briefing, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Anurag Srivastava, said that so far India has supplied a total of 229.7 lakh doses to the global community.

“While 165 lakh doses have been sent on a commercial basis, 64.7 lakh doses have been supplied as grant,” added the spokesperson.

Vaccine doses to Mexico

It is going on commercial basis. The consignment reaching today is the first batch and this will be followed by another one which will be larger than this next month. According to officials, Mexico will get almost two million doses of vaccines from India on a commercial basis.

Vaccine doses to Argentina

Argentina is also going to receive vaccine doses from India on a commercial basis soon. Though there is no set date for the vaccines to be sent to that country, it is expected to reach there later next week.

The South American nation is getting around 580,000 COVIDHIELD vaccines from Serum Institute of India (SII) which will be transported through DHL. And more are expected to be sent in March. Argentina is already getting 400,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Moscow. The vaccines are going to be used for the health personnel and the local population over 70 years of age.

Vaccine doses to Central American nation Nicaragua

Nicaragua in Central America is also set to receive vaccine doses from India on grant basis, confirmed a senior officer. Almost half a million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine are expected to reach that country in the coming week which will be used for vaccinating its local population.

Also Read: Vaccine Maitri Diplomacy: India gives support to the Caribbean Region

As reported earlier, the following countries have received supplies as gifts: Bahrain (1 Lakh), Oman (1 lakh), Afghanistan (5 Lakhs), Barbados (1 Lakh), Bangladesh (20 Lakhs), Myanmar (17 Lakhs), Nepal (10 Lakhs), Bhutan (1.5 Lakhs), Maldives (1 Lakh), Mauritius (1 Lakh), Seychelles (50000),Sri Lanka ( 5 Lakhs), and Dominica (70000).

Commercial Basis

The countries who received the vaccine doses on commercial basis include Brazil (20 Lakhs), Egypt (50000), Algeria (50000), South Africa (10 Lakhs), Kuwait (2 Lakhs) and UAE (2 Lakhs), Morocco (60 Lakhs), Bangladesh (50 lakhs), and Myanmar (20 lakhs). Canada will be receiving soon.

More countries are expected to cover in a phased manner over the coming weeks when India will send supplies of the vaccines to countries in CARICOM and Pacific Island states, Africa, and Latin America.

According to the MEA official spokesperson, “The supplies of these vaccines will be calibrated as per domestic production and the requirements of the national vaccination programme.”