Vaccine Maitri: India Has Supplied Over 2.29 Crore COVID-19 Vaccine Doses To Global Community So Far, Says MEA

In a big fillip to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, India has supplied several countries with as many as 229.7 lakh doses of vaccines so far, of which 64.7 lakh doses have been supplied as a grant, reports Times of India.

"As of date, we have supplied a total of 229.7 lakh doses to the global community," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Friday (12 February).

Other than the 64.7 lakh doses supplied as a grant, 165 lakh doses have been supplied by India to various countries on a commercial basis. The government is now likely to also provide supplies to more countries in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Island States.

Earlier on Wednesday (10 February), Canada also reached out to New Delhi for supplies with Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau asking PM Narendra Modi to help secure vaccines from India. PM Modi had assured Trudeau that India would do its best to fulfil Canada's vaccine requirement.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs' spokesperson Anurag Srivastava, the government would calibrate supplies as per the domestic production and the needs of the national vaccination programme which had begun on 16 January.

Under the programme, the government is looking to vaccinate 300 million people who fall under priority groups by end of July. It should be noted that India has so far vaccinated 7.8 million people as of yesterday (12 February).