United Nations Thanks India For Offering 2 Lakh COVID Vaccine Doses For UN Peacekeepers

New York: United Nations on Saturday (February 20) thanked India for offering 2 lakh COVID vaccine doses for UN Peacekeepers and appreciated efforts to strengthen COVAX Facility for ensuring equitable access to vaccines for all. “India has been a global leader in pandemic response efforts. Appreciate efforts to strengthen COVAX Facility for ensuring equitable access to vaccines,” TS Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to UN, quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying.

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Mr. Guterres also thanked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for offering 200,000 COVID vaccine doses for UN Peacekeepers. India has supplied a total of 229.7 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine to the global community as of last week, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

India on January 16 began its mammoth coronavirus vaccine rollout by administering 207,229 shots on the first day with the help of hundreds of thousands of health workers who were trained and assisted by the UN agencies.

The Central 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 Authorisation (EAU) after going through established safety and immunogenicity in a well-prescribed regulatory process and these will be administered during the vaccination drive.

Addressing a weekly briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India plans to gift vaccine doses to Oman, CARICOM countries, Nicaragua, Pacific Island states. He further said that New Delhi plans to supply 1 crore or 10 million vaccine doses to Africa and 10 lakh to United Nations health workers under GAVI’s (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) COVAX facility.

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.