NEW DELHI: Two flights, each carrying two million doses of Covishield vaccine, departed from the Mumbai airport for Brazil and Morocco in the early hours of Friday. India is one of the world's biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines.
"The Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, departed from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) carrying 2 million doses to Brazil via Emirates Sky Cargo and 2 million doses to Morocco on Royal Air Maroc," said a press release by CSMIA.
It mentioned that as of January 22, CSMIA has facilitated movement of over 14.17 million doses of the Covishield vaccine across various international and domestic destinations. Since Wednesday, India has been sending COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles.
India has already rolled out a massive coronavirus immunisation drive under which two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, are being administered to frontline health workers across the country. While Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield is being manufactured by the Serum Institute, Covaxin is being produced by Bharat Biotech.