NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2021) Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa thanked India for donating 500,000 doses of the domestically-produced coronavirus vaccine Covishield as the shipment arrived in the island country on Thursday.
"Received 500,000 #COVIDー19 vaccines provided by #peopleofindia at #BIA [Bandaranaike International Airport] today(28). Thank you! PM Shri @narendramodi & #peopleofindia for the generosity shown towards #PeopleofSriLanka at this time in need," the president wrote on Twitter.
As part of the Vaccine Maitri (Vaccine Friendship) campaign, New Delhi is shipping the domestically-manufactured Covieshield vaccine, developed jointly by UK-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the Oxford University, free-of-charge to partner countries as a gesture of goodwill.
Bhutan, Bahrain, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Seychelles, Mauritius and Myanmar have already received the first shots.
