India gives coronavirus vaccine to 25 countries, Canada not on list

New Delhi: Two coronavirus vaccines have been approved in India and from January 16, they have started to be used for COVID-19 vaccination programs. 

The PM Modi government has also given around 10.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to many countries of the world in January, of which 6.3 million have been sent to friends on a friendly basis. As per information received from sources, the Government of India has now approved the supply of 24 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 25 countries on a commercial basis in February.

The government said last month that the Ministry of External Affairs would oversee the export of coronavirus vaccines on a commercial basis to international countries and international organizations.

India has supplied 16.7 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to 20 countries. It consisted of about 6.3 million doses supplied in 13 countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and Oman, Barbados and Dominica. About 10 million more doses were supplied on a commercial basis in seven countries including Brazil, Morocco and South Africa.

According to the Foreign Ministry's plans for February, the Serum Institute of India will be required to supply 24 million doses on a commercial basis to 25 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Mauritius, Philippines, Serbia, UAE and Qatar.

Canada is not included in this list of 25 countries to have received the COVID-19 vaccine from India, a government official said. Canada had recently requested India for 1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Canada's Public Service Minister Anita Anand faced some embarrassing moments this week when she was unable to answer an MP's questions. In a video, Anita Anand told MPs that she had not called Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but did not know if any other person in the government had not informed the Indian government.

The Justin Trudeau government that aims to vaccinate all residents by September 2021 is under pressure from the opposition over complaints of vaccine deficiency, as the winter wave of the Covid-19 epidemic continues in Canada. In its largest city, Toronto, 810,797 coronavirus cases have been reported so far due to infections arising from Brazil and South Africa.