WTO DG Okonjo-Iweala congratulates India on administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses
Oct 21, 2021
New Delhi [India], October 21 : World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is on a three-day visit to India, congratulated the nation on achieving the milestone of administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccination doses on Thursday.
She also congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
She lauded India's effort for achieving the huge target in a very short period of time.
"I think it's absolutely significant that India has achieved a 1 billion doses target. I want to congratulate the govt, PM Modi, Health Minister, my colleague the Commerce Minister, everyone. This is a huge achievement in a very short period of time," said Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, DG, WTO.
"Since we have seen that the more you can vaccinate the population the faster you can also recover from the pandemic economically, I think it's a great signal. We can see that India is rebounding very fast with respect to the economy. So, it's very good," added Okonjo-Iweala.
In a landmark achievement, India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 100 crore doses on Thursday.
A total of 100 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far to eligible beneficiaries, as per the CoWIN portal at 9:47 am today.
India is set to hold crucial talks on vaccine patent waiver and global trade issues with WTO DG.
The WTO DG's visit to India is significant as it comes a little over a month ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the WTO which will take place from November 30 till December 3.
Okonjo-Iweala took office on March 1, 2021, and became the first woman and the first African to be chosen as Director-General. Her term will expire on August 31, 2025.
