The Indian External Affairs Ministry announced on Saturday that India had provided 500,000 doses of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to Afghanistan and would deliver another batch of the equivalent soon. 

In a statement, it said, "Today, India supplied the next batch of humanitarian assistance consisting of 500,000 doses of COVID vaccine (COVAXIN) to Afghanistan... Another batch of additional 500,000 doses would be supplied in coming weeks."

India has promised to send a million doses of vaccine to Afghanistan. The most recent group was sent to Kabul's Indira Gandhi Hospital.

The vaccine, which is manufactured from killed coronaviruses by Indian biotechnology company Bharat Biotech, comes on top of 1.6 tonnes of medical aid India provided to Afghanistan through the World Health Organization in December.

Vaccine apartheid 2.0

As Omicron becomes an international threat, developing and developed countries alike are seeking ways to contain the pandemic. 

However, with the 'vaccine apartheid' which has spilled from the past year onto today, there will be an abysmal 'jab gap' between high-income countries and low-income countries. 

Although it has been predicted that there will be at least a billion-vaccine surplus by the end of 2021, recently, Covax announced that it will not be able to satisfy the vaccine needs of developing countries, which have only vaccinated some 0.5% of their populations. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-general of the World Health Organization, pointed out that 41 countries have yet to vaccinate even 10 percent of their populations.

Commenting on boosters, he said there was not yet enough data to show a third dose is needed to effectively protect healthy adults against the variant, continuing to say that "as we move forward, boosters could play an important role."