World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “supporting vaccine equity”. Ghebreyesus also commended Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sending Covid-19 vaccines to more than 60 countries, hoping that other nations will also follow India’s example.
Taking to Twitter, he said, “Thanks, India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting vaccine equity. Your commitment to COVAX and sharing COVID-19 vaccine doses is helping 60+ countries start vaccinating their health workers and other priority groups. I hope other countries will follow your example”. The WHO chief had last week urged countries and drugmakers to help speed up the manufacture and distribution of vaccines across the globe, warning that the world could be “back at square one” if some countries went ahead with their vaccination campaigns and left others behind. Last month, he expressed gratitude to India and Prime Minister Modi for continued support to the global COVID-19 response against the pandemic. “Thank you, India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for your continued support to the global COVID-19 response. Only if we #ACTogether, including sharing of knowledge, can we stop this virus and save lives and livelihoods,” Tedros had tweeted.
India has sent consignments of anti-coronavirus vaccine doses as gifts to countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, Afghanistan, Barbados and Dominica. Countries that received vaccines on a commercial basis include Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Kuwait and the UAE.
