India's Modi gifts Bangladesh 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

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India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh on Saturday, Reuters quoted its foreign minister as saying, as Dhaka urged New Delhi to maintain a regular supply of shots to battle the pandemic.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th independence anniversary. The trip also marked Modi’s first foreign travel since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Bangladesh signed a deal in November with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The country of more than 160 million people has already received 9 million vaccine doses from Serum. India has also previously gifted its neighbour 2 million doses of the shot that Serum is producing for many countries.

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