India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh, its foreign minister said, as Dhaka urged New Delhi to maintain a regular supply of shots to battle a pandemic.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th Independence anniversary.
Meanwhile, UNICEF said that it expects the Serum Institute of India (SII) to resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in May as part of a World Health Organization (WHO)-backed program to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries.
UNICEF is the distributing partner of the program, running with the GAVI vaccine alliance.