India is one of the worlds top drug makers and has said that it will provide COVID-19 vaccines, mostly Covishield under grant support to Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Seychelles and Myanmar from Wednesday. The shipments will be sent to Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Afghanistan on the receipt of required regulatory clearances.

Bhutan is the first country to receive a vaccine from India out of the six nations. The first batch of 1.5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine was dispatched to Thimphu, Bhutan from Mumbai in the early hours of Wednesday.

The news comes as Covaxinis in a controversy, and the medical fraternity is apprehensive against it, mostly rejecting the vaccine. The Ram Manohar Lohia Hospitals Resident Doctor Association has officially sent a letter to the hospital administration, stating that the doctors of the hospital are worried about Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, the only vaccine that is used at the vaccination centre.

The Covaxin controversy is presentsince the government gave the “emergency approval” under a clinical trial mode. The vaccine is still in Phase-3 trials, except all volunteers will receive the vaccine and few will get the placebo. In spite of the serious concerns of a major portion of the Indian population, the healthcare workers are not allowed their choice of the COVID-19 vaccine. In its place, their choice of the vaccine, Covishiled is being sent in millions of doses to other countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs has also said that India will outsource COVID-19 vaccines to partner countries in the coming few weeks and months keeping the domestic requirements in view.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry said that they are expecting to receive a gift of two million doses on Thursday. The officials said that the country is yet to start its immunization programme and has ordered an additional 30 million doses.

It is supposed that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is broadly observed as the best option because the other two vaccines that are manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, are required to be stored at very low temperatures.

India has rolled out a huge coronavirus vaccination drive in which Covaxin is being given to frontline healthcare workers across the country. Oxford-AstraZenecas Covishield is being manufactured by the Serum Institute and Covaxin is produced by Bharat Biotech.

India had supplied earlier paracetamol, hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir tablets, along with the masks, gloves, diagnostic kits, ventilators and other medical provisions to several countries for supporting them while managing the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: India Times