WTO DG Okonjo-Iweala congratulates India on administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses

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.

( With inputs from ANI )

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