In what comes as big relief for the small Buddhist kingdom, that had been staring at a potential vaccine shortage, Bhutan will receive around 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Denmark in the coming weeks, the Danish foreign ministry said.  

“The government has also decided to donate approx. 250,000 doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca to Bhutan, which urgently lacks doses for the implementation of other plugs for a large part of the population,” the statement released on Thursday reads.

It further added that the Danish authorities were working to get the vaccine doses delivered to Bhutan as soon as possible.

“Donation and transport of vaccines is a complex process. There are still a number of practical and legal ends to be met so that donations can be carried out as efficiently and safely as possible. We are working hard on that,” Ole Jensen, Deputy Director of the Statens Serum Institute, was cited as saying in the release.

Earlier, the Bhutanese government has informed that they were in touch with at least 17 countries to arrange the second dose of Astra Zeneca vaccines. The country had administered the first doses to around 97 percent of its population in April in the record nine days' time. 

 Earlier, Bhutan had received vaccines from India. However, the Covid-19 outbreak in India jeopardized Bhutan’s plan to fully vaccinate its population. The country’s Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji had earlier said that it would procure vaccines from other countries, though it remained hopeful about India, with whom it has special ties, meeting its requirements.