Geneva, February 25: World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "supporting vaccine equity". The global health body director-general hoped that other countries would follow India's example.

"Thanks, India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting vaccine equity. Your commitment to COVAX and sharing COVID-19 vaccine doses is helping 60+ countries start vaccinating their health workers and other priority groups. I hope other countries will follow your example," Tedros wrote in a tweet.

The WHO chief had last week urged countries and drugmakers to help speed up the manufacture and distribution of vaccines across the globe, warning that the world could be "back at square one" if some countries went ahead with their vaccination campaigns and left others behind. COVID-19 Vaccination in India: Over 1.19 Crore Healthcare and Frontline Workers Vaccinated.

Last month, he expressed gratitude to India and Prime Minister Modi for continued support to the global COVID-19 response against the pandemic. "Thank you, India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for your continued support to the global COVID-19 response. Only if we #ACTogether, including sharing of knowledge, can we stop this virus and save lives and livelihoods," Tedros tweeted.

India has supplied COVID-19 vaccines to its neighbours including Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India has sent a total of 361.94 lakh vaccine doses to various countries.

Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the total includes, 67.5 lakh doses supplied under grant assistance 294.44 lakh doses under various commercial contracts. "We will continue to supply these vaccines in the coming weeks and months in a phased manner," he said.

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