India Sends 1,00,000 Covishield Vaccines To Maldives To Fight COVID; Twitter Lauds 'Gift'
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.
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).
Covishield
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.
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 ?, ?? has been our first responder and dependable friend.
¡ª Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) January 20, 2021
India's decision to send vaccines as gifts to help neighbouring countries has been applauded:
Maldives is happy to receive as grant, 100,000 doses of Covishield developed by Serum Institute of India - among the first countries to receive vaccines from India.
¡ª Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) January 20, 2021
As always, India stands strong & steadfast, by our side, as 1st responder in any crisis#MaldivesIndiaPartnership pic.twitter.com/Pdi99YxBr1
The consignment of Covid vaccines takes off for Maldives!#VaccineMaitri#NeighbourhoodFirst pic.twitter.com/nNQnmI2HYs
¡ª Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) January 20, 2021
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¡ª MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) January 20, 2021
May all be free from disease
India dispatches 1.0 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to the Maldives. The shipment has been transported from Mumbai to Male on Air India. pic.twitter.com/AQnw8nusIT
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.
