Anita Anand, the Canadian minister of public services and procurement, received the first tranche of 500,000 doses of Serum Institute of India's Covishield
Canada has received the first batch of Made in India Covid-19 vaccines.
Anita Anand, the Canadian minister of public services and procurement, received the first tranche of 500,000 doses of Serum Institute of India's Covishield.
Another tranche of 1.5 million doses will follow. Canada is due to receive a total of 22 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later informed media persons, "Very early this morning, our first half a million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from the Serum Institute arrived in Canada. Already, the national operations centre has worked with provinces and territories to coordinate shipments of these vaccines across the country. Our priority is to get doses into arms as soon as possible."
Canada has already approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for immunising its population. The AstraZeneca vaccine is the third to be cleared by the country.
To recall, Trudeau had dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February seeking access to the vaccines.
Stating that he was elated to receive a call from his friend Trudeau, India would do its best to ensure supplies of Covid-19 vaccines sought by Canada.
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