Foreign
THE first deliveries of coronavirus vaccines produced in India have been sent to Brazil and Morocco, the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The two countries were set to receive 2 million doses each of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the Brazilian Health Ministry and Moroccan broadcaster 2M.
India is one of the most prolific vaccine producers in the world.
Many of them were sold at lower prices to countries with less resource at their disposal.
The country is also giving hundreds of thousands of doses to countries in the region free of charge as part of its so-called vaccine diplomacy.
Due to its enormous population, India needs a lot of coronavirus vaccine doses itself and has recently started its vaccination campaign.
Around 300 million people are to be vaccinated by the summer, which corresponds to less than a quarter of its 1.3 billion inhabitants.
After Brazil recently granted emergency approval to the AstraZeneca and Chinese-made Sinovac vaccines, the first Brazilian woman was vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine on Sunday in Sao Paulo.
The vaccination campaign was initially marked by complications also because the government in Brasilia started it earlier than originally planned under public pressure.
According to the news agency Agencia Brasil, Brazil wants to test the vaccine from India for quality and safety on Saturday and distribute it to its states on the same day. – dpa/NAN
– Jan. 22, 2021 @ 4:36 GMT |
Tags: Agencia Brasil AstraZeneca vaccine India sends millions of vaccine doses to Brazil and Morocco
