Mauritius has kicked off its inoculation drive against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic with Bharat Biotech’s vaccine. The island nation’s top sportspersons led the way in taking the shots on Monday in order to encourage others to follow suit and thanked India for the Covaxin consignment.
Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius K. Nandini Singla and and Kobita Jugnauth, the spouse of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, were among the first to take the shots in order to inspire confidence in the vaccination campaign.
After taking the first shot, Mauritius Paralympic champion Noem Alphonso tweeted: “Encourage everyone to take the vaccination… very thankful to India.”
Eric Milazar, the country’s retired Olympic athlete said, “Very proud and happy to have received the vaccine shot… Thank the government of India.”
In a unified attempt to free the world of coronavirus, India had on Friday handed over to Mauritius a commercial supply of 200,000 doses of Covaxin vaccines under the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative.
Earlier this month, External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and Prime Minister Jugnauth entered the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) with Mauritius, a country in which the Indian diaspora represents nearly 70% of the population. Their ancestors were sent there as indentured labourers during the British rule.
Mauritius is India’s key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region and occupies a special place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘SAGAR’ (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
According to the Covid count by the Johns Hopkins, Mauritius on Friday recorded 762 confirmed infections and 10 deaths.
Covaxin has proved to be 81% effective in an interim analysis of late-stage trial data on some 26,000 people and is one of the two vaccines being used in India’s inoculation drive which is in full swing with the aim of covering 300 million people by August.
Bharat Biotech has supplied 5.5 million doses of its vaccine Covaxin, developed with the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research, to the inoculation campaign in India. The Indian government will be buying another 4.5 million doses for the ongoing domestic vaccination programme.
Nepal has given emergency authorisation to Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine. Brazil and Zimbabwe have also sought the India-made shots for their inoculation campaign against the pandemic.
Brazil, the world’s second worst hit country by the pandemic next to the US, signed an agreement to buy 20 million doses of the Covaxin in February. Brazil’s health ministry said in a statement that the first 8 million doses of the Bharat Biotech vaccine are expected to arrive in March.
