India Sends Batch Of Home-Grown Coronavirus Vaccine To Bahrain - Foreign Ministry

India sent a batch of domestically-produced coronavirus vaccine doses to Bahrain under its Vaccine Maitri campaign, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2021) India sent a batch of domestically-produced coronavirus vaccine doses to Bahrain under its Vaccine Maitri campaign, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday.

Vaccine Maitri, which translates as "vaccine friendship," is a campaign that was launched on January 20, under which India sends Indian-made vaccines to its partner countries as a gesture of goodwill.

"Next Stop Bahrain! Consignments of Made in India Covid vaccines takes off for the Kingdom of Bahrain! #VaccineMaitri," Srivastava said on Twitter, attaching images of the plane that will carry the supply.

This past Monday, Bahrain's National Health Regulatory Authority approved the emergency use of Covishield, an Indian-manufactured coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Vaccines from India were already received by such countries as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal. Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are underway with regulatory clearance to receive their batches as well. India's vaccine diplomacy also expanded upon Indian-stationed foreign diplomatic missions, whose personnel and their families were offered to get free shots.

There are two domestically-produced coronavirus vaccines authorized for emergency use in India at the moment. One is Covieshield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and the other one is Covaxin, developed by Indian biotechnology firm Bharat Biotech.