AKIPRESS.COM - Appreciating India’s response to fighting covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations on February 20 thanked India for offering 200,000 COVID vaccine doses for UN Peacekeepers - nearly 95,000 troops in 12 missions around the world, The Geneva Daily reported.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was quoted as saying, in a letter to India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N, that “India has been a global leader in pandemic response efforts. Appreciate efforts to strengthen COVAX Facility for ensuring equitable access to vaccines”.

Guterres also thanked India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for offering 200,000 COVID vaccine doses for UN Peacekeepers.

"Keeping in mind the UN peacekeepers who operate in such difficult circumstances, India announces a gift of 200,000 doses for them. Our contribution has also supported SAARC Covid-19 Emergency Fund," Jaishankar said.

Twenty-five nations across the world have already received Made in India vaccines and forty-nine more countries will be supplied in the coming days, ranging from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands, Jaishankar said at the UNSC debate.

"The Bhagavad Gita states “do your work with the welfare of others always in mind”. That is the spirit in which India approaches the Covid challenge and urges the UNSC to work collectively to address its different dimensions," he said.

India has supplied about 23 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the global community as of last week.

India plans to gift vaccine doses to Oman, CARICOM countries, Nicaragua, Pacific Island states.

New Delhi plans to supply 10 million vaccine doses to Africa and one million doses to United Nations health workers under GAVI's (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) COVAX facility.

India began its mammoth coronavirus vaccine rollout on January 16.

Indian government has introduced an application named CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work) to monitor the entire vaccination process. Two vaccines – Covaxin and Covishield – have received Emergency Use Authorization (EAU) after going through established safety and immunogenicity in a well-prescribed regulatory process and these will be administered during the vaccination drive.