Despite the global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India had sent medical assistance worth Rs 16 Crores to Latin America & Caribbean countries (LAC) and these included all CARICOM members.
Recently, the Prime Minister of Barbados reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting 100,000 doses of vaccines. India has responded and the vaccines have reached that country.
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit had written to Prime Minister Modi. In response, 70,000 doses of vaccine have reached that country which will vaccinate half of their population.
Made in India:
As part of India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative, aimed to assist countries in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Made-in-India vaccines reached Jamaica on Monday (local time).
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in a tweet, “Caring for our Caribbean friends. Made in India vaccines have reached Jamaica.”
Last week, India had dispatched 175,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to other Caribbean countries like Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenadines and Suriname.
Hours after receiving 40,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Alfonso Browne thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonstrating an “act of benevolence, kindness and empathy” by sending 175,000 AstraZeneca vaccines to the Caribbean countries.
Twenty-five nations across the world have already received Made-in India vaccines. Forty-nine more countries will get vaccine in the coming days. Ranging from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands.