Brazil sends special flight to India to receive 2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine

Brazil has sent a specially equipped aircraft to airlift two million vaccine doses of India’s homegrown coronavirus vaccine. This will mark India’s first export of the vaccine, as per the Indian Express report.

This comes as India is all set to begin its first phase of the vaccination drive against Covid-19 on Saturday.

Last week, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsanaro wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for the bulk purchase of the vaccine from India without disrupting its inoculation drive, as per media reports.

According to IE, Brazil signed a deal with Serum Institute of India in Pune as the country reportedly stated that the Chinese Covid-19 vaccines are less efficacious than it had earlier claimed.

Brazil has also sought vaccines from Bharat Biotech. However, the first consignment will be from Serum.

“There is no point storing more vaccines beyond India’s current capacity. So, the vaccine export to other countries doesn’t affect India’s vaccination plans,” said the report quoting a senior government official.

According to the Worldometer dashboard, Brazil has so far reported 83.26 lakh coronavirus cases, with more than two lakh deaths. The number of recovered patients stands at 73.39 lakh.