India has sent a supply of COVID-19 vaccines to Myanmar and these will be sent to seven regions of Myanmar.

The vaccine supply arrived on 22 January.

Indian Ambassador Saurabh Kumar said Myanmar was the first priority in terms of the free gift of the vaccine.

“COVID-19 vaccines just arrived at the airport of Myanmar. It is the result of the close discussions between the leaders from the two countries. This 1.5 million doses of vaccine is a present and it is a present that India gives to its neighbouring countries. Among those, Myanmar is included as the highest priority.”

The vaccines will be used to inoculate 0.7 million people and as the first priority, the medical staff will be inoculated before the end of January.

As part of the process of restarting the country, government staff and members of parliament will soon be inoculated.

And then the elderly people, people with underlying disease, people from the area of high risk transmission and people from Stay-at-Home order townships will be inoculated step by step.

The aim is to provide two doses of the vaccine to recipients.

Dr. Tun Myint, Regional Health Director of Yangon said Covishield vaccine from India has a low risk of allergic reaction and is safe to use.

“We know that people are worried about allergic reactions. For that we have trained the medical staff for any side effects. So I’d like to say not to worry so much about this.”

The vaccines bought by the government will also arrive next week.