A statement released by the Brazil Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that Azul Airlines Airbus A330neo aircraft fitted with special containers were scheduled to fly back from Mumbai with two million doses of Serum Institute of India vaccine and arrive in the country on 16 January.
By publicly declaring the shipment of an aircraft to transport two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from India, Brazil appears to have jumped the gun, with New Delhi making it clear on Thursday that it will take more time to take decisions on supplies to foreign countries.
A statement released by the Foreign Ministry of Brazil on Wednesday confirmed that Azul Airlines Airbus A330neo aircraft fitted with special containers were scheduled to fly back from Mumbai with two million doses of vaccine from the Serum Institute of India to the nation on 16 January.
“India stands by its commitment to help the world and all countries will get the vaccines,” one of the people cited above said.
On January 8, the office of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stated that he had penned a letter to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to speed up the order of two million doses of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine developed by the Indian Serum Institute. Bolsonaro is under pressure from competitors, including those who have indicated a choice for the Chinese vaccine, to roll out the vaccine.
“To [ensure] the immediate implementation of the Brazilian National Programme of Immunisation, I would highly appreciate your good offices in expediting the shipment of two million doses of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India to Brazil urgently, but as long as it does not impact the Indian vaccination program,” Bolsonaro wrote in the letter in Portuguese.
The announcement by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, also in Portuguese, confirmed that the Ministry of Health had “bought” the doses from the Serum Institute of India and that, after a letter from President Jair Bolsonaro to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Brazilian embassy had “made arrangements with the Indian government and the Serum Institute of India.”
Ministry’s Response Over The Matter With Brazil:
Asked about the matter of Brazil during a weekly news briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava made statements.“You would recall that the prime minister had already stated that India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used for the benefit of all humanity in fighting this crisis”. He said.
“As you would know, the vaccination process is just starting in India. It is too early to give a specific response to the supplies to other countries as we are still assessing production schedules and delivery. We will take decisions in this regard in due course, this may take some time.”
