India dispatched the first consignment of 1,00,000 doses of Covishield vaccines from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to Male in the Maldives on January 20.
The flight will first arrive in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and then leave for Male.
With this, Male, along with Bhutan, has become the first recipient of India's gift of the Covishield vaccines, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).?
India has also sent a consignment of 1.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield to Thimphu, Bhutan.
Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives Speaker of People's Majlis (parliament) tweeted, "Today, an Air India plane will land in Male'' with 1,00,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine - a gift from India. For the Maldives, it's the beginning of the end of this terrible virus. During the tsunami, ''88 coup, water crisis or corona pandemic, India has been our first responder and dependable friend".
Today, an Air India plane will land in Male' with 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine - a gift from India. For it's the beginning of the end of this terrible virus. During tsunami, ¡®88 coup, water crisis or corona, India has been our first responder and dependable friend.
India's decision to send vaccines as gifts to help neighbouring countries has been applauded:
This vaccine diplomacy of India is yet another testament to its Neighbourhood First policy, in which the Maldives occupies a special and central place. This is reciprocated in full measure by the ''India First'' policy of the Government of Maldives.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Maldives in June 2019 rightly said ''Neighbourhood First is our priority; in the Neighbourhood Maldives is a priority''.
Since the Maldives has a population of about 5,00,000 the donation will cover the vaccination requirement of a significant percentage of the population. In addition, Maldives proposes to purchase 3,00,000 doses of vaccines from SII at commercial rates.