In chronology, many would
like to forget 2020 as Covid 19 threatened the globe. Read an interesting
article on the total volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world –
clueless, one thought it could least be the size of Olympic swimming pool. But that Scientific
article puts that the coronavirus in the
world could fit inside a Coke can, with plenty of room to spare !!
Yet Corona
has impacted 10,82,30,119 people globally with 23,84,001 succumbing to the dread
disease all over the World. 2021 has
brought in some relief in the form of a vaccine. Health Ministry reports that till date, over
80 lakh beneficiaries have been vaccinated (8042454) of which 59 lakh people
are Health care workers .. .. really good indeed.
The
Commonwealth of Dominica has received 70,000 vaccinations from India under the
Vaccine Maitri initiative. This comes after Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt
Skerrit wrote to his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting
the vaccine. With India initially supplying vaccines to its Asian neighbours,
Dominica is the first Caribbean nation to receive the vaccination.
With India’s
apex drug regulator approving Bharat Biotech to start clinical trials of
intranasal Covid-19 vaccine candidate, hopes have risen that the country could
soon have a crucial and easy tool to prevent the highly infectious disease. As intranasal vaccine
requires minimal training to administer and will not need a needle and syringe,
it is being touted as a game changer in controlling the pandemic. A subject expert
committee on Covid-19 of the CDSCO earlier this month permitted the
Hyderabad-based vaccine maker to launch the Phase I clinical trial of an
intranasal vaccine candidate for the Covid-19.
I had posted
about the Chattogram test (Chittagong) where 28 year old left-handed batting allrounder - Kyle Rico
Mayers rose to fame. In the test no 2407
– fortunes kept changing and in the end it was a grand victory for the visiting
Wes Indies. Mayers was the player of the
match. Kyle Rico Mayers from Barbados
rose to write his name in history with a double century in a tough situation in
his debut match – that too in the 4th innings.
Three years ago Mayers was caught
up in Hurricane Maria when he had gone to Dominica with the Windward Islands
franchise team for a training camp. The roof of the apartment where he was
living had come off in that hurricane. Mayers spent the next morning searching
for food and water, and later was helped by local police and team officials.
Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an
island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western
side of the island. It is geographically situated as part of the Windward
Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The
island is located near Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the
south-southeast. Its area is 750 km2 (290 sq mi). The island was settled by the
Arawak arriving from South America in the 5th century. It was later colonised
by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French
imported enslaved people from West Africa to Dominica to work on coffee
plantations. Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War,
and it gradually established English as its official language.
The island gained
independence as a republic in 1978. Dominica has been nicknamed the
"Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its natural environment. Roosevelt
Skerrit is the Prime Minister of
Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille
Case constituency since 2000. Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit
thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his gesture after the latter
dispatched 35,000 'Made In India’ coronavirus vaccine shipment, sufficient to
inoculate half of the country’s 72,000 total population. “I did not imagine
that the prayers of my country would have been answered so swiftly,” Skerrit
wrote in a tweet, thanking India.
Furthermore, in his
address to the Caribbean nation after the consignment of covid vials from India
arrived, the Dominican PM stated, “One would have thought and understood that
in a global pandemic such as this, a nation's size and might would have been
the primary consideration.” Expressing gratitude for PM
Shri Narendra Modi, Skerrit said, “But to the credit of Prime Minister Mr Modi
our request was considered on merit and the equality of our people was
recognized.”
Under the Vaccine Maitri
initiative, India on February 8, dispatched two separate shipments of
domestically manufactured ‘Covishield’ vaccines to Barbados and Dominica. The
COVID-19 vials, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) departed
from Mumbai. Earlier, having received India’s vaccine consignment, Prime
Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, had thanked Prime Minister Modi and India for
the "most generous" donation.
"I trust that you are well and safe,” Mottley wrote in a letter to
PM Modi, cited by ANI. “On behalf of my Government and people, I wish to
express gratitude to you, your Government and the people of the Republic of
India for its most generous donation of the Covishield vaccines (under the
auspices of Oxford Astrazeneca),” she had further added.
Tall leader in
the Global arena – our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji
13.2.2021
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