Half a mn doses of Covishield vaccines made in India arriving in Colombo today

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, January 27:

A gift of half a million doses of Oxford-Astrazeneca’s Covishield vaccines manufactured in India will arrive in Colombo on Thursday by a special Air India flight. The vaccines are being sent under the Indian Government’s VaccineMaitri (VaccineFriendship).

The vaccines are packed in tailor-made boxes, and will be ceremonially handed over to Sri Lankan authorities by Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay at the Bandaranaiake International Airport, the High Commission said in a press release. 

The consignment of COVISHIELD vaccines arrives in Sri Lanka on the auspicious Duruthu Poya Day. Baglay will pray at the sacred Gangaramaya Temple for the health and well-being of the people of Sri Lanka on the Day.

He will also seek the blessings of Ven. Dr. Kirinde Assaji Thero. As per the Buddhist traditions in India and Sri Lanka, the High Commissioner will offer meals to devotees at the Temple.

Incidentally, Baglay had first arrived in Sri Lanka to take up his assignment in the Vesak Week in May 2019 with 12.5 tons of medical supplies as gift by India to Sri Lanka for fighting COVID-19 pandemic.  

Oxford-Astrazeneca’s COVISHIELD vaccine is manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune in Maharashtra state. This has been approved for emergency use by Government of Sri Lanka. 

The gift from India is keeping in line with India’s continued support to Sri Lanka in fighting the COVID pandemic. Four consignments of medical supplies weighing around 25 tonnes were donated by India, which also organised online experience-sharing programmes for Sri Lankan medical professionals.

The two partners have also put up a joint front in the COVID-19 battle with India and Sri Lanka being the largest contributors to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for SAARC. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had complimented Sri Lanka’s leadership on containing the pandemic. 

Guided by ‘Neighbourhood First’ and SAGAR policies, India has so far gifted about five million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to neighbouring countries, and those in the Gulf and Indian Ocean since 20 January 2021. 

Millions of doses of made-in-India COVID vaccines have also been exported to countries as far away as Latin America and West Asia, and will continue to reach those in the Caribbean and the Pacific too.

In September 2020, Prime Minister Modi told the UN that India’s vaccine capacity will be used to help all humanity fight the COVID pandemic. India, which is called the ‘Pharmacy of the World’, supplied essential medicines to fight COVID-19 to 150 countries, more than half of it as a gift.