200,000 COVID-19 vaccines given by India for UN peacekeepers are already being put to use: UN spokesperson

The 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines gifted by India for all UN peacekeepers are 'already being put to use' and a number of these Blue Helmets have already been vaccinated, spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres has said.

"The Indian Government' had offered us '200,000 doses' and a number of peacekeepers are already, as far as I know, being vaccinated," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told reporters at the daily press briefing on Friday in response to a question on vaccination of UN peacekeepers.

"So, on the Indian vaccines, those, which I think wereAstraZeneca, those were 200,000. They're already being put to use," he said. India, one of the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping missions, gifted 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for UN peacekeepers across all UN missions.

As of March 31 this year, there are 87,889 personnel serving in 12 peacekeeping operations around the world. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had announced in February that India will gift vaccine doses for UN peacekeepers.

"Keeping in mind the UN Peacekeepers, who operate in such difficult circumstances, we would like to announce today a gift of 200,000 doses for them," Jaishankar had said, while addressing the UN Security Council open debate on the implementation of resolution 2532 (2020) on the cessation of hostilities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quoting the Bhagavad Gita, Jaishankar had said, "Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind."

The 200,000 doses essentially meant that it would be possible to administer the required double doses of COVID vaccines to all UN peacekeepers across missions.

The AstraZeneca vaccines had left Mumbai via Qatar Airways on March 27.The shipment went to Copenhagen, where it was safely stored in a facility, re-packaged and quickly distributed to all peacekeeping missions for the peacekeepers.