Bengaluru: In a glowing tribute to India’s vaccine manufacturing prowess, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres termed it the “best asset” of the world. 

He said, "I think that the production capacity of India is the best asset that the world has today. I hope the world understands that it must be fully used."

"I know that in India there is a very high level of production of Indian developed vaccines. We are in contact with Indian institutions for that. We strongly hope that India will have all the instruments that are necessary to play a major role in making sure that a global vaccination is campaign is made possible," he added. 

India has vaccinated a million people in the initial six days of its inoculation drive. At the same time, it has remained true to its commitment of distributing vaccines to the other needy nations.  

 

External Affairs Ministry (EAM) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava, "From 20th January 2021 onward, we have gifted over 55 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines to our neighboring countries and in the extended neighborhood--1.5 lakh to Bhutan, 1 lakh to Maldives, Mauritius, and Bahrain, 10 lakhs to Nepal, 20 lakhs to Bangladesh, 15 lakhs to Myanmar, 50,000 to Seychelles, 5 lakh to Sri Lanka. In the coming days, we plan to gift further quantity to Oman that is of 1 lakh doses, 5 lakh doses to CARICOM countries. 2 lakh to Nicaragua, 2 lakh doses to the Pacific island state," Srivastava further added. 

"On a commercial level, the export has taken place for Brazil Morocco, and Bangladesh. Further supplies to countries on commercial bases are likely to take place in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada Mongolia, and other countries. We plan to supply 1 crore or 10 million vaccine doses to Africa and 10 lakh to United Nations health workers under GAVI."