India’s largest outbound shipment of Covid 19 vaccine has been to Bangladesh. The south Asian country received 90 lakh doses of Covid 19 vaccine from New Delhi.

Bangladesh received its first consignment of the vaccines on March 25.

Bangladesh, home to 16 crore people, embarked on its Covid 19 vaccination drive on January 28 much earlier than expected after it received the Made in India jabs.

India has sent the vaccines to about 70 countries.

Meanwhile, external affairs minister S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha that India has been supplying Covid-19 vaccines to other countries only after ensuring that there are adequate jabs for domestic use, which is being monitored by an empowered committee. The exercise has reinforced India’s “reputation as the ‘Pharmacy of the World,’” the minister noted.

“The House should be aware that the supply of vaccines abroad is based on the assessment of adequate availability at home,” the minister said in a statement. “This is continuously monitored and takes into account the requirements of our domestic vaccination programme as it unfolds in different phases,” he added.

Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star reported that India has sent Britain (50 lakh doses), Saudi Arabia (30 lakh doses), Myanmar (37 lakh doses), Nepal (23.48 lakh doses), Bhutan (1.5 lakh doses), Maldives (2.12 lakh doses), Sri Lanka (12.64 lakh doses), Brazil (40 lakh doses), Morocco (70 lakh doses), South Africa (10 lakh doses) and Afghanistan (9.68 lakh doses).