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Picture for illustrative purposes Image Credit: AFP

Dubai: The UAE on Saturday night announced procuring 5.5 million pills of hydroxychloroquine, a medicine found to be effective in treatment of coronavirus, from India.

”Under guidance of UAE leadership, @UAEembassyIndia succeeded in obtaining the approval of the Indian government to export adequate quantities of #Hydroxychloroquine to UAE,” the UAE Embassy in New Delhi tweeted.

”The first shipment of medicine, currently on its way to the #UAE, includes 5.5 million pills for treatment of patients with #Covid_19. We highly appreciate the cooperation of the Indian government in facilitating the procedures for obtaining the necessary approvals,” the mission added.

As reported by Gulf News on Wednesday, India was fast-tracking procedures to supply hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to support the UAE’s battle against COVID-19.

The move followed a request from the UAE government to aid the supply of the pill for which some UAE-based companies had placed order from India, the Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor had said.

“There was a request from the government of the UAE to help out with the supply [of HCQ],” said Kapoor.

“A few companies here had made the request to import the drug to the UAE. We received a note verbale from the UAE government also seeking support for the supply through those companies,” he said.