Iran requests COVID-19 vaccines from India

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New Delhi: Having approved the use of AstraZeneca-Oxford and Bharat Biotech vaccines, Iran has requested COVID-19 vaccines from India. Iran has become one of more than 20 countries to have requested vaccines from India. 

So far India has supplied more than 229.7 lakh COVID-19 vaccines doses to several countries around the world. The country has supplied over 64 lakh doses as grants and over 165 lakh doses commercially.

"We will continue to take forward the global vaccine supply initiative and cover more countries in a phased manner," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement last week.

India has gifted 1 lakh doses of vaccines to Bahrain and Oman, 50000 to Egypt, 2 lakh to Kuwait and 2 lakh to UAE on a commercial basis.

India has also supplied COVID-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh (20 Lakhs doses), Myanmar (17 Lakhs doses), Nepal (10 Lakhs ), Bhutan (1.5 Lakhs doses), Maldives (1 Lakh doses), Mauritius (1 Lakh doses), Seychelles (50000 doses), Sri Lanka ( 5 Lakhs doses), Afghanistan (5 Lakhs doses). 

Meanwhile, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres expressed concern over lack of availability of vaccines in several countries around the world.

Calling the distribution of coronavirus vaccines "widely uneven and unfair", Guterres said that only 10 countries have administered 75 per cent of all vaccinations, He called for a global effort to get all people in every nation inoculated as soon as possible.