Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro took to Twitter on Friday to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing two million doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford to fight the pandemic.
Bolsonaro tweeted with a picture of Lord Hanuman carrying a vaccine from India to Brazil and said, “Namaskar, Prime Minister @narendramodi. Brazil is honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle.
Thank you for helping us with vaccine exports from India to Brazil. Dhanyavaad! धनयवाद.”
The vaccine landed in Sao Paulo on Friday before being flown to Rio de Janeiro, where Brazil’s state-run Fiocruz Institute is based who has an agreement to produce and distribute the vaccine, announced Brazil’s Health Ministry. In April, India also provided the Latin American country raw materials for the production of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
Namaskar, Prime Minister @narendramodi
Brazil feels honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle by joining efforts.
Thank you for assisting us with the vaccines exports from India to Brazil.
Dhanyavaad! धनयवाद
— Jair M. Bolsonaro 2️⃣2️⃣ (@jairbolsonaro) January 22, 2021
Brazil has over 8.7 million and 2,14,000 deaths related to COVID-19 and has the second-highest number or Coronavirus cases in the world after the United States.
India, which is the world’s biggest drugmaker, began the commercial export of vaccines on Friday and has undertaken contractual supplies of coronavirus vaccines to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh and Myanmar. An increasing number of countries have already approached India for procuring Coronavirus vaccines.