UPDATE - New Delhi Sends Indian-Made COVID-19 Vaccines To Seychelles, Mauritius - Foreign Ministry

UPDATE - New Delhi Sends Indian-Made COVID-19 Vaccines to Seychelles, Mauritius - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW/NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2021) India on Friday began shipping Indian-made vaccines against the coronavirus disease to Seychelles and Mauritius, the country's foreign ministry said.

"Consignments of Indian made Covid vaccines being airlifted for Seychelles and Mauritius!" ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava tweeted.

Later in the day, Srivastava specified that 1.5 million doses had been airlifted to Myanmar, while 100,000 and 50,000 doses had been airlifted to Mauritius and Seychelles, respectively.

"As stated earlier, supplies as grant assistance to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will be undertaken after receiving confirmation of regulatory clearances from these two countries. Contractual supplies are also being undertaken to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh and Myanmar," the spokesman said at a press conference, adding that India will continue to send COVID-19 vaccines to its partners in a phased manner in the coming weeks and months.

When asked, Srivastava mentioned not being aware of any requests for shipping India-made vaccines to Pakistan on either commercial or government to government basis.

Earlier in the week, India delivered free-of-charge domestically-manufactured Covieshield vaccine, developed jointly by UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University, to neighboring countries, including Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In early January, India's regulator approved the emergency use of Covieshield and Covaxin, developed by Indian biotechnology firm Bharat Biotech. The country started its vaccination campaign, billed as world's largest, on Saturday.