Representative image NEW DELHI: India dispatched the first consignment of 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to Male in the Maldives on January 20. The flight will first arrive in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and then leave for Male. With this, Maldives (along with Bhutan) has become the first recipient of India's gift of the Covishield vaccines, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII). Earlier on Wednesday, India sent a consignment of 1.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield to Thimphu, Bhutan. Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives' Speaker of People's Majlis (parliament) tweeted, "Today, an Air India plane will land in Male' with 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine - a gift from India. For the Maldives, it's the beginning of the end of this terrible virus. During the tsunami, '88 coup, water crisis or corona pandemic, India has been our first responder and dependable friend".