India shipped thousands of doses of its first batches of Covid-19 vaccine to the Maldives and Bhutan on Wednesday as it strives to meet increased demand from other countries in a hurry to immunize their populations, according to the authorities.
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The Indian government said the Maldives would receive "
gift
" 100,000 doses of Covishield Wednesday, the vaccine developed by Oxford AstraZeneca and produced by Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume.
Bhutan is also due to take delivery of 150,000 doses of the same vaccine.
Then it will be the turn of Bangladesh, Nepal, Burma and Seychelles, the government said.
India plans to offer some 20 million doses to its neighbors, the Bloomberg agency reported last week.
Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius, as well as Brazil and South Africa will be next on the very long list of countries waiting for the vaccine.
Latin America, Africa and the former Soviet republics follow in line.
This Indian policy aims, according to observers, to strengthen its “
soft power
” against its great rival, China, which also supplies vaccines abroad.
"
The world's pharmacy will take up the challenge of Covid,
" Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on his Twitter account.
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The immense country of 1.3 billion inhabitants launched last Saturday its vaccination campaign based on Covishield and Covaxin developed by the Indian firm Bharat Biotech, whose phase 3 clinical trials have not yet been concluded.
