China has assured Bangladesh of sending Covid-19 vaccine on a ‘priority basis’ once discovered, says a press release.
"There is a lot of progress in their (China’s) work. If the vaccine is discovered, the Chinese government will send it to Bangladesh on a priority basis,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Monday while seeing off the Chinese medical team at the airport, according to the health ministry release.
Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy Hualong Yan earlier in an interaction with Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) said China would continue to support Bangladesh in its fight against the pandemic.
“As a close neighbour and strategic partner, Bangladesh will be among the first countries to receive the vaccines from China,” he said, following the developments in Beijing.
An institute of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences launched a second phase human trial of a possible coronavirus vaccine aimed to fix the shot’s doses and evaluate further its effectiveness and safety.
“An inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has entered phase-2 clinical trials in China,” the state-run Xinhua reported.
The 10-member Chinese expert team ended their two-week visit on Monday. The embassy will hand over their recommendations to the health ministry within a week.
They saw firsthand of how Bangladesh is containing the virus and treating patients with “remarkable success”.
Sending the team to Bangladesh shows one of the reflections of President Xi Jinping's assurance to the reality, the embassy said.
Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on May 20 following which the team has arrived.
They visited designated hospitals, quarantine centres, and testing centres, and discussed on the epidemics with Bangladeshi counterparts.
“Cooperation is very important bilaterally and multilaterally during this time of crisis,” the deputy chief of mission said.
Bangladesh stood by China when the virus first emerged in the Wuhan city in December.
The health minister said China would extend its helping hands to Bangladesh in view of the generosity.
He said the medical team had expressed their satisfaction on the overall measures the government is taking to contain the virus.
“But still there is room for improvement. We will work on those areas in future,” he said.
Replying to a question, the health minister, however, said there is a global shortage of coronavirus testing kits.
“We have enough stock so far. But we are not getting the supply as per our request. But we’ll try to manage to avoid any crisis,” he said, asking all not to be worried about that.
He urged all to be aware of the disease and take preventive measures.
He said they would recruit 2000 more doctors if the situation continues to deteriorate.
Besides, the health ministry is working on to recruit medical technologists. The government will take need-based all measures, he said.
The Chinese team interacting with DCAB said they had identified lack of public awareness as one of the problems in Bangladesh.
They stressed on two important issues for all – hand washing and discard masks properly without touching the outer and inner surfaces which can be contaminated.
They said RT-PCR test is the only confirmatory test for the diagnosis of the disease.
