NEW DELHI, Jan 22, 2021 (BSS) – Bangladesh will get the first
consignment of “contractual supplies” of Covid-19 vaccine “Covishield”
from India soon as the country today allowed commercial export of the
vaccine to fight the pandemic.
“India will continue to supply Covid-19 vaccines to partner
countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased
manner…Contractual supplies are being undertaken to Bangladesh,
Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Morocco and Myanmar,” said Official
Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Anurag
Srivastava here this evening.
Responding to a volley of questions from media including
Bangladesh’s national news agency BSS during the virtual media
briefing, he, however, said the supply would be continued keeping in
view of the domestic requirements of the phased rollout.
In terms of quantities and types of vaccines, he said, the supplies
abroad on G-to-G, G-to-B, and B-to-B basis would be based on
availability and regulatory approval in the countries concerned since
there was interest in many countries in access to vaccines from India.
When asked whether Pakistan had made request to India to get the
vaccine supply, he avoided to give direct reply saying that he was
“not aware of any request for the supply of Indian made vaccines to
Pakistan on a G2G basis or commercial basis”.
On vaccine cooperation, he said, among the neighbouring countries,
India has so far supplied 20 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines to
Bangladesh, 10 lakh doses to Nepal, 1.5 doses to Bhutan and one lakh
doses to the Maldives as grant assistance yesterday.
Besides, he said that consignments of 15 lakh doses for Myanmar and
50,000 doses for Seychelles are being airlifted.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told
media that the first consignments of “Covishield”, developed by
UK-based drug maker AstraZeneca and Oxford University will be shipped
to Brazil and Morocco.
The Indian government had held off exporting doses until it began
its own domestic immunization programme on January 16.
“Commercial supplies of the vaccine would begin from Friday in line
with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment that India’s production
capacities would be used for all of humanity to fight the pandemic,”
he added.