Justin Trudeau thanks India over fighting COVID, securing vaccine doses for Canadians

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday, 27th February appreciated the support and partnership provided by India in fighting COVID-19 and helping secure coronavirus vaccine doses for the people of Canada.

In a media briefing, Trudeau said, "This morning, Health Canada authorized the AstraZeneca Oxford COVID-19 vaccine as well as the Serum Institute of India's version COVISHIELD. We now have a safe and third vaccine independently approved by health experts in Canada. This is very encouraging news, which means more people would be vaccinated soon. "

"I want to express my appreciation for the support and partnership of the Indian Government  in fighting COVID-19 and helping secure vaccine doses for Canadians," he added.

The Canadian Prime Minister also took to Twitter and said, "We’ve secured 20 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine - and on top of that, we’ve now reached an agreement with the Serum Institute of India for another 2 million doses. Our first shipment of half a million doses is expected to arrive within weeks."

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Trudeau speaks on a call with PM Modi

Earlier this month, the Trudeau government was questioned over the delay in procuring COVID-19 vaccines and the Canadian opposition MPs had questioned the government if they reached out to India for vaccines, to which the government had no response. After Trudeau's call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the latter took to Twitter to assert that "India would do its best to supply COVID-19 vaccines sought by Canada"

"Expressing his appreciation, Prime Minister Trudeau said that if the world managed to conquer COVID-19, it would be significant because of India's tremendous pharmaceutical capacity, and Prime Minister Modi's leadership in sharing this capacity with the world.  Prime Minister thanked PM Trudeau for his sentiments," a press release from the PMO read.

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