India to use SAARC COVID-19 emergency fund to send anti-malarial drug to Afghanistan

New Delhi, Apr 16: The hydroxychlorquine tablets for Afghanistan will be sent from the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund which was set up following the suggestion made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

India will be sending 5 lakh tablets to Afghanistan. The fund it may be recalled was created with an initial corpus of USD 10 million from India. Other SAARC members have also contributed towards the fund.

Officials tell OneIndia that the tablets would reach soon and the option of using third party planes are being explored. India has already made deliveries to Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. On why the drug will not be sent to Pakistan, the official said that the country has claimed that it has enough supply of medicines.

The anti-malarial drug has shown positive results in some coronavirus cases. This has boosted the world wide demand for the drug. India has allowed the pharma companies to export the drug to friendly nations as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

During the virtual SAARC conference held last month, PM Modi had said that the fund would be financed by voluntary contributions from all members. Pakistan which contributed USD 3 million was the last SAARC nation to make the pledge.