Clicky
National, Front Page

Bangladesh writes to Russia for Covid-19 vaccine


Published : 31 Aug 2020 10:16 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 09:49 PM

Bangladesh has written to Russia for the Covid-19 vaccine as the government is exploring all available options in the world to get the shots first, Health Minister Zahid Maleque says.

“We (government) had a fruitful meeting with the Russian ambassador here also,” he told journalists after his meeting with South Korean Ambassador Lee Jang-keun on Monday at the secretariat.

South Korea will donate 800,000 testing kits for Covid-19 and two PCR machines for labs.

Talking with the journalists, the health minister highlighted the government’s steps to get a vaccine as soon as it becomes available in the world.

 “The process to import vaccines is going on,” he said, “We have sent a letter to Russia. The government will prioritise the vaccine which will come first”.

 He said Russia is also interested in providing the vaccine on a government-to-government (G2G) basis. Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier this month, announced that his country is the first in the world to register a vaccine against Covid-19.

 He had also said that his daughter took the vaccine and was feeling well. Following his claims, the World Health Organization (WHO) said discussions were underway with Russia regarding a possible pre-qualification of the world's first Covid-19 vaccine.

The Bangladesh government earlier allowed Chinese company Sinovac to conduct their final stage trial in the Covid-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka.

 Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited became the Bangladesh distributor of Oxford vaccine which will be produced in Serum Institute of India once approved.