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Nobody will be left out

17 crore vaccines ensured


Published : 30 Jun 2021 10:23 PM | Updated : 01 Jul 2021 12:21 AM

Bangladesh is going to get 17 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine soon.  Health Minister Zahid Malek came up with the statement while addressing the National Assembly on Wednesday. 

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the session. 

The health minister announced the good news at a time when the coronavirus infection situation was getting worse in the country. He said there would be no crisis of vaccine. Ten crore vaccines will arrive in the country by December this year, he said adding that, we would get another seven crore vaccines by next year.

The health minister said the 10 crore vaccines that will arrive by December will be injected to five crore people in the country in two doses.

“When the rest of the vaccines arrive, they will be applied to everyone in phases. Through this, everyone who is eligible for vaccination will come under the vaccine programme,” he mentioned.  However, the health minister has not yet said exactly what dose of the vaccine will come to the country from which company. 

To prevent coronavirus infection, the government had inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to purchase the first Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield brand vaccine.

Three crore vaccines were bought from them and they were supposed to give 3 crore vaccines in six months in 5 million doses every month.

But so far only 7 million doses of vaccine have been obtained from them. As the corona infection situation deteriorated in India, no more vaccines were available from the Serum Institute. 

Along with this, the government also had 3.2 million doses of covishield vaccine given in two phases by the Government of India. This 1.02 crore dose vaccine stockpile is almost at the end. 

In the mean time, the government has received 1.1 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China in two phases. And with the initiative of the Global Vaccine Alliance, one lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine have come to the country from Covax facility.

These vaccines are now being applied in a limited range in the country.  According to government sources, 2.5 million doses of the modern vaccine will arrive in the country on July 2 or 3 from the Covax facility.

Diplomatic sources said that Beijing is also preparing to send 2 million doses of sinopharm vaccine bought from China to Bangladesh.

The government is also pursuing diplomatic efforts to procure Sinopharm and Sinovac from China, Sputnik-V from Russia and Johnson and Johnson’s one-dose vaccine from the United States.  So far, there is no specific information about any of those coming to the country.

However, the Ministry of Health and Foreign Affairs has always been hopeful that Bangladesh will soon be able to procure a significant amount of vaccines.