Around 20 lakh contracted doses of the ‘Made In India’ Covid-19 vaccines reached Brazil from India in the wee hours of Saturday. The Brazilian President, Jair M Bolsonaro, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet depicting Hanuman Ji with the “Sanjeevani” herb.
‘Sanjeevani’, mentioned in Ramayan is a “magical herb” which Lord Hanuman Ji brought by lifting an entire mountain. The Brazilian President tweeted, “Brazil feels honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle by joining efforts. Thank you for assisting us with the vaccine exports from India to Brazil.”Not for the first time that the Brazilian President has made references to ‘Hanuman’ and ‘Ramayan’. Last year, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting hydroxychloroquine and lauding Indian efforts.
In the letter, he said, “Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Lakshman… India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all people.”
India gave a go-ahead to commercial exports of India made vaccines from Friday, 7 days after it began its mega countrywide vaccination. Other than Brazil, Morocco got its contracted commercial supplies on Friday, becoming the first country to get the supplies.
South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Myanmar expected to get commercial supplies soon commence shortly. Both Myanmar and Bangladesh have contracted 30 million doses of vaccines from India. Supplies to Bangladesh is expected to begin next week.
South African govt has announced that they will be getting one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in January and 500,000 doses in February of the oxford University-Astrazeneca vaccine–COVISHIELD from Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
Last week saw India gifting Covid-19 vaccine supplies to 7 countries in the region as part of “neighborhood first” policy. These are Bhutan (150,000) , Maldives (100,000) , Nepal (One million) , Bangladesh (2 million) , Myanmar (1.5 M), Seychelles (50,000) , Mauritius (100,000),
Indian Navy’s P8I reached Seychelles and Mauritius with the supplies on Friday. The delivery is part of a normal profile of the Indian Navy’s P-8I, which carries out extensive surveillance in the Indian ocean.
In Mauritius, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth was personally present at the airport, along with the Indian envoy to the country Nandini Singla as the supplies landed. Lauding India reaching out to its neighbourhood, PM Jugnauth said, “we warmly applaud India for leading by example & PM Modi Ji is donating Covid-19 vaccine to countries with which India has friendly relations. We feel highly privileged that Mauritius is one of those countries.”
Adding, “The shipment of vaccines which have reached our shores today bears testimony of the international solidarity of India….we are also inspired by public announcement of PM Modi ji to the global community that India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity to fight the pandemic”
PM Jugnauth joins world leaders like Bhutan PM Lotay Tshering, Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli and Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina in expressing gratitude to India for New Delhi’s vaccine outreach.
India produces 60% of the world’s vaccines, with the world health organization getting 70% of its vaccines from the country. Last year amid the pandemic, the Indian govt sent HCQ and Paracetamol to 150 countries reaffirming its position as the pharma capital of the world.