India donates COVID vaccines to Caribbean nations |
India is donating COVID-19 vaccines to the Caribbean countries that importantly include Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Suriname, nations that are home to a large Indian Diaspora. The total Indian Diaspora in these nations is around 2 million. So far, India has announced a humanitarian donation of 570 thousand doses of vaccines. The Caribbean countries include CARICOM countries plus, Cuba and The Dominican Republic. Countries including Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, make up the CARICOM countries. The vaccines are being sent to these countries as humanitarian aid. During the global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India had sent medical assistance worth $2.2 million to Latin America & the Caribbean countries (LAC) and these included all CARICOM members. External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar was in regular touch with his counterparts in CARICOM countries and had offered India`s full cooperation during post-COVID. Recently, the Prime Minister of Barbados reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting 100,000 doses of vaccines. India has dispatched the vaccines and the same have reached there. Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit had written to Prime Minister Modi and in response, 70,000 doses of vaccine have reached that country too. The vaccines will vaccinate half of the country`s population. Around 400,000 doses for the countries in the Caribbean region are going to be dispatched soon. India has given around 5.5 million doses of vaccines in the neighborhood countries on their request. Last week, Bahrain became the first country in West Asia to receive the vaccine gift from India.
|
|
|
|