India’s “Vaccine Maitri” Initiative

Vaccine Maitri Initiative is an initiative launched by India to gift COVID-19 vaccines to neighboring countries. Recently, Sri Lanka and Bahrain have received the COVID-19 vaccines from India under the initiative.

Key Points

• The Vaccine Maitri initiative was launched by India on January 20 to gift COVID-19 vaccines to neighboring countries.
• Sri Lanka has received 5 lakh Covid-19 vaccines from India as a part of the “Vaccine Maitri” initiative.
• Consignment of vaccines has also been sent to Bahrain. The country will receive 10,800 vaccines under the initiative.
• India has already delivered over 5 million doses to seven countries in the neighborhood under the initiative before Sri Lanka and Bahrain.
• The 7 countries are- the Maldives (100,000 vaccines), Bhutan (150,000 vaccines), Nepal (1 million vaccines), Bangladesh (2 million vaccines), Myanmar (1.5 million vaccines), Mauritius (100,000 vaccines), and Seychelles (50,000 vaccines).
• Commercial supplies of Covishield have also been sent to Morocco, Brazil, (2 million doses each), and Bangladesh (5 million doses).

COVID-19 Vaccination in India

The COVID-19 vaccination programme started in India on January 16, 2021, with the two approved vaccines (Emergency-use) – Covishield and Covaxin. In phase 1, health workers are being vaccinated followed by people above the age of 50 years.