New Delhi (TIP): Days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met key officials in the Biden administration in Washington DC, the US announced Thursday, June 3,  that it will distribute Covid-19 vaccines to India as part of its “strategy for global vaccine sharing”.

President Joe Biden made the announcement and Vice President Kamala Harris called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Washington’s plans to make vaccines available to other countries, including India.

Initial estimates suggest India will get about 2-3 million doses in the first tranche of doses via COVAX and directly from the US. This is a day’s dose for India – on Thursday, the country administered 2.62 million doses, according to a provisional official report. These included 24,04,166 first dose beneficiaries and 220,805 second dose beneficiaries.

A US statement said that the administration will begin sharing the “first 25 million doses of COVID vaccines” with countries as part of the framework for sharing at least 80 million vaccines globally by the end of June.

Biden said: “At least 75 per cent of these doses — nearly 19 million — will be shared through COVAX, including approximately 6 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 7 million for South and Southeast Asia, and approximately 5 million for Africa, working in coordination with the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.”

“The remaining doses, just over 6 million, will be shared directly with countries experiencing surges, those in crisis, and other partners and neighbours, including Canada, Mexico, India, and the Republic of Korea,” he said.

Biden said: “We are sharing these doses not to secure favours or extract concessions. We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic, with the power of our example and with our values.”                 Source: Indian Express