Afghanistan receives consignment of Made-In-India Covid-19 vaccines under Vaccine Maitri

Afghanistan received 4,68,000 doses of the Made in India Covid-19 vaccine under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme on March 9, Tuesday. Afghanistan's envoy to India Farid Mamundzay informed via a tweet that the consignment arrived on time at the HKI airport in Kabul. Farid wrote, "468,000 doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine, from the AstraZeneca Serum Institute of #India arrived yesterday at HKI airport. Minister of @mophofficial was there to receive the shipment & expressed gratitude on behalf #Afghanistan. Vaccines help us save lives & prevent transmission." 

Afghanistan receives Made in India Covid-19 vaccine

In an effort to boost its vaccine diplomacy, India has sent the first batch of domestically produced Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan shared his gratitude towards India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the Government of India for assisting with Covid-19 doses. He wrote on Twitter, "My profound gratitude to my friend @DrSJaishankar, the government & people of India for assisting with 500k dozes of 'Made in India' vaccines to address #Covid spread in Afghanistan. A clear sign of generosity, commitment & strong partnership indeed."

India's 'Vaccine Maitri’ programme 

Meanwhile, India has won global praise for its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme which aims to aid poor countries amidst the global pandemic. So far, India has exported the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's indigenous vaccine to more than 29 countries and will be providing vaccine doses to 49 more countries in the coming days. Both the vaccines are already in circulation in India with senior citizens receiving the jabs in the second phase of the immunization drive.

Earlier today, India sent a consignment of Made In India vaccines to Tajikistan. Last week, India sent stocks of Covishield vaccines to Ghana, Nigeria, Guyana, Guatemala and other countries. India's Vaccine Maitri programme that was started around a month ago aims to help poor countries amid the global pandemic. In this brief period, the country has delivered around 56 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's indigenous vaccine.