Our prayers answered says PM Skerrit, as India’s vaccines reach Dominica

New Delhi, Feb 10: Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of the Dominica thanked and showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India for the swift response to his request for 35,000 COVID-19 vaccines that can shield nearly half his country's 72,000 population from COVID-19.

While seeking the vaccines from India on January 19, he had said he had not really hoped to get the vaccines soon. PM Skerrit and his cabinet colleagues had formally received the vaccines. They even helped unload some of the boxes of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the plane.

PM Skerrit said, " I must confess that I did not imagine that the prayers of my country would be answered so swiftly. 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. But, it is to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that our request was considered on merit and the equality of the people was recognised."

The donation of 35,000 vaccines to Dominica is part of Prime Minister, Modi's pledge to help other countries overcome the pandemic. India has cleared 24 million vaccines to countries such as Uganda, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Morocco, and Namibia.

In a letter written to PM Modi on February 9, PM Skerrit said that in 2020, like many nations across the globe, we were dealt an extraordinary blow by the Covid-19 crisis. However, your vaccines will allow us to move forward with renewed hope and optimism, and to reignite the many projects that Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted.

He also wrote, 'thanks to the kindness of the Indian nation, 35,000 Dominicans will be vaccinated by April 2021. India has once again come to Dominica's aid, and this too will not be forgotten.'